Partnered with the Devil
by BlackShadowScythe
Summary: An unlike trio of heroes journey to friend Lore from Drakath's influence. Please pay attention to the dates cause they are important. R&R please!
1. Chapter 1

**February 12, X-2009**  
**10:00 am**

Aaron hated the forest. It was noisy. It was cramped. It was green. It was almost overwhelming. In a word, annoying. He marched through the earth winter earth and wished he was back in the Sandsea. He breathed out a puff of frosty winter air and promised himself that if he couldn't make ten thousand gold in the first month he would go home. Home where is was warm, toasty and, best of all, free from the prying eyes that seemed to hiding in every corner of the forest.

He followed a path which soon led him up a hill which ended a cliff. A wondrous landscape lay out before him. From so high up the forest looked almost beautiful, but Aaron knew it was all just an illusion. He stared out at the red horizon. The sun was starting to come up over the trees and he could vaguely make out several towers sprawled across the skyline. From a distance, it all seemed peaceful, he thought, no one would ever guess that at that moment, a war was consuming the capital of Oaklore.

From his hometown in the Sandsea, Aaron had received word that a battle had erupted in the city of Swordhaven several days ago. It had started with a few stray skeletons roaming the sewers. One of the citizens, who had noticed the sudden appearance of undead in the city, wandered down into the underground of Swordhaven to investigate. When he disappeared, one of the villagers alerted the Royal Guard who alerted the King. The King sent a patrol of knights to search for the man who had ventured into the sewers and to block off all entrances to the sewer systems. The knights were unable to locate the man's body and he has declared dead.

A day later, the war began. Undead appeared in every corner of Swordhaven. Guardian Towers in all of the surrounding towns reported mass floods of skeletons. Luckily, the harsh climate and blinding sunlight in the Sandsea had protected Aaron's hometown from the masses of undead. The King of Swordhaven had requested that every able bodied man in the Kingdom take up arms and pitch in with the war effort and although the Sandsea didn't fall within the King's jurisdiction, the prospect of wealth and power urged mercenaries from every guild in the country, including Aaron, to head to the capital. Having been born and raised in the Sandsea, Aaron had seen his fair share of poverty. He had been taken in by a member of the ranger's guild, Black Scorpion, as a young child, and over the years, earned a reputation as one of the best archers and swordsmen in the Sandsea, second only to his mentor and foster father, Zhoom.

So far, every attempt to gain ground and keep the waves of undead from advancing had been futile. Aaron smirked, "None of those Shadowscythe loses will stand a chance! Those undead better prepare to be put back into the grave!" he boasted.

Aaron had already planned out what he would do. The battle was centered around Swordhaven. It would take him at least three days to reach the city which was located on the northern border of the country. He would slay as many undead as possible and rescue the King. He would slay the Emperor of the Shadowscythe and be knighted, Sir Aaron of Swordhaven. He said it a few times aloud. He liked the way the words seemed to roll across his tongue. He planned one working his way up and eventually become a lord with an army and estate with more horses than in the whole Sandsea combined.

As he fantasized, the dawn sky began to fill with dark clouds and a storm rolled in. A bolt of lightning split the sky, followed by a clap of thunder and a sudden downpour that had Aaron drenched in rain in a matter of moments.

"Just what I needed." he grumbled.

* * *

Rain; a sickening side effect that seemed to accompany many wars. Milleanna never enjoyed rain, but she found it especially disgusting in times of war. The ordinarily smelly battlefield became almost unbearable when drenched in water. The scent of rotting corpses drenched heavily in rain overwhelmed her senses.

"My lady." said a voice.

"Um?" Milleanna murmured, not bothering to look around.

"Perhaps it would be wise to seek shelter from the storm lest we be struck by lightning."

"Very well" Milleanna said. She slid off the roof of Battleon's Guardian Tower and swung inside through an open window. The window was part of a circular hallway that spiraled down the tower and lead to rooms that contained spare weapons and armors. Milleanna took several steps down the hallway, tracking watery footsteps on the red velvet carpeting.

The hallway was deserted. Every guardian had either been sent to Swordhaven or was fighting the ongoing battle on the streets. "My lady?" Milleanna turned around to see a young woman standing behind her with long, blonde curls that tumbled down into a waterfall of hair that ended just below her knees and wearing a clean, white apron over a black dress. "I've prepared a room that I hope you will find to your liking." she said, as she opened a door to one of the rooms.

The room was simple but neat. There was a well made bed in one corner and a desk and chair in the other. The desk was equipped with a feather pen and a well of ink. "I took the liberty to check the other floors of the tower. It seems we are the only ones here."

"Of course we are you idiot." Milleanna sneered, "No guardian worth their swords would be here while the streets are as crowded as they are. If they did, I would consider it an insult! An insult upon the Empire!" she declared, "The emperor has planned it out in more depth then you have in that hollow little skull of yours. He has made sure, that not one guardian will 'sit it out' as it were."

"Yes my lady." the woman nodded.

Milleanna walked over to the bed and sat down, soiling the white sheets with rainwater. "Of course, he didn't bother to tell me before he decided to attack every city in the country." she grumbled, beckoning the woman towards her then pointing to her boots which were coated with rain and mud. The woman got down on one knee and pulled the boots off Milleanna's feet."Give me a heads up when you decided to declare war on half the continent, is that so much to ask?" she looked down at the woman, "Well Hellenca?"

"Of course not my lady." she said as she picked up the muddy boats.

"I don't think he understands what is at stake, starting a war of this caliber. If he were to fail, it would not only be his failure, but the failure of the entire Empire, everything we've worked towards the last twenty years lost!"

"Well" Hellenca replied, timidly, "He has been lucky so far. I don't think that there is any need to worry my lady." she said as she exited the room.

"Yes." Milleanna said, without much conviction. During his two decade reign, the Emperor of the Shadowscythe Empire had never once lost a battle and while continuous successes could often teach even an over-confident ruler, to fear defeat, it only made him more arrogant. Nevertheless, he was a brilliant military commander and an even more skilled swordsman. There was not a chance in the world that they could fail, so why did it feel so wrong?

"Helenca come back for a moment!" Milleanna cried.

Helenca stepped back into the room, "Yes my lady?" she said, obediently, just as a soggy coat landed over her face.

"That's all you may leave." Millenana said. She waited a moment, then blew out the candle burning at the foot of the bed, leaving the room in total darkness. "How long do you plan on staying hidden?"

Suddenly, a dark figure materialized next to her. The figure wore a dark, flowing cloak that seemed to be made of darkness. "It's nearly time." the figure whispered in a hushed tone.

"I know."

"I expected more of a reaction, especially from you. Tomorrow is the day, the day we reclaim what rightfully belongs to us!"

"Yes, but at what cost?"

"There's always a cost little sister. That can't be helped." the figure rasped."The question is, what is more important to you."

"I would give anything!" she decided, "No price is too high. We've fought too hard for to long to back away. Let fate do what it will."

The forest air was cold and damp with the quickly falling rain. Aaron followed the road to town, praying he wouldn't meet any hostile creatures on the way. He was already completely drenched and had no intention of staying in the rain longer then he had to. He walked on until he could see the roofs of houses and a tall tower in the distance. It was a town, too small to be Swordhaven, but not so small as to avoid being a target for the Shadowscythe.

"Well what do we have here?" a voice behind him said. Aaron unsheathed his blade and whirled around. There was no one around. "Up here." the voice said.

Aaron looked up. Sitting on a tree branch several feet above his head was a dark blue moglin with a dusty gray scarf wrapped around his neck and a staff in one furry paw. "Who are you?!" Aaron asked, pointing his blade threateningly at the little blue creature. His gesture was a meaningless one for the blade was not nearly long enough to reach the branch let alone the creature sitting on it. The moglin seemed to notice this for it yawned as if bored by Aaron's antics. Then it looked down at the ranger and held out one of its paws, "Zorbak, necromancer extraordinaire."

"Are you the one that's commanding these armies?" Aaron asked.

"Meh. I told you who I was, but you haven't told me who you are yet." Zorbak huffed, "Kids today. No manners."

"I am Aaron Evergreen, Ranger of the Sandsea, here to fight for the kingdom." he announced. "And now since I have told you who I am I demand that you tell me your purpose here."

"Meh, an archer huh? You have guts kid I'll give you that." Zorbak said, "Or maybe you're just really stupid."

"What do you mean?"

"Meh. You're not really thinking of fighting a war like that are you?" Zorbak laughed. "Your quiver only has two arrows left, not that arrows will be much use against the undead."

"I have a sword." Aaron reminded him.

"That's going to rust if you don't sheath it." the moglin cackled.

Aaron shook the water droplets off this blade and sheathed it quickly.

"Meh." Zorbak said, flashing a smug smile filled with pointed teeth. "The Shadowscythe are just some punks you can get rid of with a swipe of a sword. They're a lot worse then anything you've seen in your lifetime kid." He paused and chuckled, "Would you like to know a secret?" Aaron nodded, hesitantly, "The King's daughter, is going to die today, in this very town."

"What are you talking about?" Aaron demanded.

"Meh, didn't you hear the news?" the moglin smirked. Aaron growled, the he turned and kicked the trunk so hard Zorbak lost his balance on the branch on toppled out of the tree. Aaron snatched the moglin up in midair and pinned him against the tree. "Tell me what the Shadowscythe are planning you little rat or I swear I'll-"

Zorbak grinned, seemingly unfazed by the ranger's rough treatment. "Meh, don't look at me, I have no idea what they're thinking. I meaning kidnapping a princess? That's low, like bandits low. What are they trying to do get ransom or something? Lame. I mean the Shadowscythe aren't ebil like yours truly, but they've always had class." Aaron tightened his grip on the moglin's throat, letting him know to get to the point. "So that got me thinking." the moglin spluttered out between chokes, "All this must be personal."

"Personal?"

"Meh, but it's not like a princess that's barely out of her diapers is going around making enemies like that. I'm thinking someone's trying to push her old daddy into coming out here himself. Tie the noose around his neck and let him dangle there a while before delivering the final blow, if you know what I mean" he grinned.

"Who!" Aaron shouted, "Who's doing this!"

Zorbak opened his mouth, but then stopped. "On the other hand, I think it'll be more fun for you to discover that on your own, Mehehe!" he chuckled and vanished from Aaron's grasp.

* * *

Aaron lay in the alley, looking out of the waves of undead on the street as he planned out his next move. The rain had stopped, replace with the warm rays of a welcoming sun. Aaron sat still, trying to make as little noise as possible. During his time in the Sandsea, he and Zhoom had taken down dozens of rebel gangs and groups of thugs, some of which, had enough man to fill a small army. Zhoom had taught him the importance of killing the gang leader before the lackeys were targeted. With their leaders gone, Aaron found that a surprising number of the gang members immediately fled the battle and Aaron could take them down one by one. Finding the leader however would sometimes prove challenging.

The leaders of the gangs he had taken down with Zhoom where usually infamous and relatively distinguishable from the other members of the gang. They usually had finer clothing, a trademark facial feature and cowered in the back of the room while their henchmen did all the fighting. The Shadowscythe armada however, was no simple gang. There must have been dozens of generals, and although it was most likely a necromancer controlling the army of undead, Aaron wasn't familiar with the town enough to know its best hiding places. It would most likely be somewhere high up, he thought, so that they could supervise the troops. But if they were using a scrying orb, then the could watch and control the army from just about anywhere.

"All men in position!" Aaron heard someone shout, "Hold your ground and protect the civilians!" Aaron rushed out from his hiding place and quickly unsheathed his sword, just in time to see an enormous red dragon swoop down from the sky and reached at them with it's razor sharp talons.

Aaron fell to the ground and lay down flat on his back, barely avoiding being snatched up by the dragon's claws. The dragon rose into the air and swooped down again, this time, Aaron saw one of the guardians, who was lying on the ground a few feet away, raise his blade and jab it into the dragon's underbelly. Although the sword pierced deep into it's flesh, the beast did not seem to feel the injury. It rose back into the air, not even breaking in its assent. This time, the dragon kept rising. It flew higher and higher until it was far above the buildings.

"Take cover!" Aaron heard a guardian shout. "She's going to blow!"

Aaron looked up at the dragon. Smoke billowed out from its nostrils and Aaron realized what it intended to do. He crawled onto his feet and leaped out of the way just as the dragon let out a ball of flames big enough to engulf the whole town in a matter of moments. He closed his eyes, preparing to meet his doom, but opened them to a bright flash of light. He looked up at the sky to see a magical barrier hovering above the town, shielding it for imminent destruction. The dragon's flames intensified, but the barrier held firm and the flames bounced off harmlessly.

"Warlic!" one of the guardians cried. "Thank the avatars!"

"I'm afraid that even they've been rather restless as of late." the blue mage said, lowering his arms, but maintaining the protective barrier in the sky. The mage walked up to the guardian and nodded respectfully, "Kain, it's been a long time."

"That it has, but I'm afraid we're not quite out of the fire get." the guardian said, looking up at the dragon who slammed itself against the mage's barrier in a fruitless attempt to shatter it. "That dragon, it has the king's daughter."

"Say what!?" Aaron cried. He snatched the telescope from around Kain's waist and pulled it out to full length. He looked through it and saw a small figure clinging to the dragon's horn.

"Hey! What do you think you're doing?" Kain cried. "You can't just take that!"

Aaron shoved the telescope back into Kain's hands and ran back into the alley. He spotted several trash cans lying in a corner and tipped them over one by one. A heap of trash spilled out over the floor. Aaron got down on his hands and knees and began rummaging through the junk. "Come on, come on, there's got to be something I can use!" he muttered. He reached his hand into the pile and pulled out a discarded umbrella that had a large hole in the fabric. "Perfect!" he cried, pulling out a small dagger he had strapped to his leg. He tore off the remainder of the fabric leaving only the metal frame behind.

Aaron untied a rope from around his waist. He tied one end to the handle of the umbrella and flung it around like a lasso. "Archmage!" Aaron cried, "When I toss the rope, cast a spell to make it longer!"

"Have you lost your mind!" Kain cried as he seemed to realize what Aaron was planning on doing. "Even if you make it up there, the Shadowscythe will kill you before you can blink!" The mage however simply nodded.

Aaron rushed to the side of a house, using a staircase of stacked crates to boost himself onto the roof. He flung the hooked end of the lasso, aiming at the dragon's enormous clawed legs. As he let go of the rope, it stretched out to double then triple its original length. The lasso caught between the dragon's toes. "UP!" Aaron shouted, looking back at the mage who nodded and lifted one hand to point at the dragon, as if commanding the rope to move that direction. The rope shortened dramatically in length and sent Aaron soaring of the roof of the house and into the air towards the fire breathing beast. 

* * *

All the pieces were slowly falling into place. Bit by bit, slowly. The Darkness enveloping Lore; would stretch its tendrils into the planet's very core, destroying the light which had tainted it for almost as long as she could remember.

"Milady."

"Yes? What is it?" Milleanna said, sitting slouched in a chair and turning her head towards the door. She was wearing a black turtleneck sweater which sleeves were several inches past her finger tips. "Has Alteon shown up yet?" she asked.

"I'm afraid not." Hellenca said, uncomfortably. Milleanna frowned causing Hellenca to flinch. "Perhaps he's realized it was meant to be a trap for him. He's-"

"Hm?"

"He's sent a mercenary here." Hellenca said, "For the girl."

"What kind?"

"A ranger." Milleanna stayed silent for a long moment. "My lady?"

"Fetch my coat." she ordered. Hellenca nodded and left the room. As soon as she left, Milleanna slammed her fist on the table top. "Dammit Alteon." she seethed. "Don't you even give a damn about your brat's life?" She got up. "Dammit all!"

She reached for the desk drawers and roughly pulled them open. Inside was her personal collection of magical items; rings, jewels and trinkets of every shape and size. She picked out a handful, just as Hellenca draped the coat over Milleanna's shoulders. The girl slid her hands through the sleeves and poured the contents of the drawers into the various pockets sown onto the coat. She straightened the collar on her jacket and stepped out into the hallway.

She waled down the hall and stepped out onto the balcony. The rain had stopped, but the air was still humid and damp from the downpour. Perfect. Almost immediately, Milleanna spotted the dragon and she could just make out the shape of a girl and young man standing opposite one another on its back. She sighed, pulled out a ring from one of her pockets and slipped the ring onto her finger. The jeweled center glowed a dark shade of purple. Milleanna lifted the ring up to her lips. "Wings." she whispered as a pair of jet black feathered wings sprouted from her back and lifted her into the air. 

* * *

Aaron soared towards the body of the massive dragon. As he drew closer, he let go of the rope and unsheathed his sword. He pointed the blade downwards and jabbed the dragon's side. The sword pierced through its rough skin and dug deep into its flesh. Oddly though, the dragon didn't seem to react to the attack and it continued cruising through the air as if nothing had happened.

Aaron ascended the beast using his sword as a foot hold. When he reached the dragon's back, he pulled the blade out from its side. "Princess!" he cried. Standing several feet in front of him was a girl, around nine or ten years old, wearing a silk gown and a silver crown around her head. He tried to stand but the altitude's harsh winds prevented him from getting up. Instead, he lay down on his stomach and dragged himself along the dragon's spine until he was only an arm's distance from the princess. "It's alright, I gotcha." he said, putting his hand on the princess's foot. "It's alright , I gotcha." he said, putting his hand on the princess's foot.

"I'm afraid it's far from, ok." a voice said. Aaron looked up into the face of a older girl. She looked to be about fifteen and was dressed in a dark red overcoat with a black turtleneck underneath. Her eyes glowed a bright red that made Aaron's skill crawl. The princess sat quietly behind her, eyes glazed over as if she wasn't quite there. On the princess's finger was a small green ring. Aaron could sense a large amount of magical energy emitting from the ring.

"What have you done to her?!" Aaron demanded.

"Tch." The girl folded her arms and stared down at Aaron with a disapproving gaze. "Maybe you haven't noticed yet with that thick skull your type seems to have, but you're not exactly in any position to be asking questions are you?" the girl said as she slide her foot underneath Aaron and kicked him in the stomach.

Aaron fell of the dragon's back. He slid down its side, but before he could lose his grip and plunge towards his death, something caught him. He looked down to see that his rope had magically wrapped itself around his waist. He thought about climbing back up onto the dragon's back, when, to his surprise, the rope moved on its own and lifted him up onto the dragon's back.

"Hey!" Aaron cried.

The girl turned. "Oh." she said, seemly unconcerned, "You're still alive." To Aaron she seemed disengaged, as if her focus was on something else entirely.

Aaron growled. "All my life." he said, "All I've heard was about how powerful the Shadowscythe army was. Back home and here too. Well I'm sick of it! Since I've got here, all I've seen you guys do is hurt people, the princess and the townspeople too. I refuse to accept that you are the strongest out there!"

The girl seemed surprised for a moment, but then she smiled, "That was a nice speech kid, but the fact of the matter is, I really don't give a damn about what you believe. See, it doesn't matter a freakin bit whether or not you choose to accept it. The question is, what are you going to do about it?"

Aaron sneered and removed a bow that was slung around his shoulder. Then, he pulled out one of the two remaining arrows in his quiver and inserted it into his bow. He lifted the weapon and pointed the arrow directly at the girl's forehead.

"Now that's more like it."

* * *

The ranger pointed his arrow at her forehead, aiming to kill. " Now that's more like it." she said. Milleanna didn't know why, but she had taking a liking to the human. Maybe it was because he reminded her of someone she had known a long time ago. Or maybe it was just because of the fiery gaze he looked at her with as he prepared to kill her.

From its short hair she could tell it was a male and from its face she guess it was about twenty in human years, but she wasn't sure. With humans it was hard to tell. She looked around. Alteon still hadn't come. She sighed, "He's really isn't coming is he?" she said aloud. She turned back to the human, "I hoped he would, I really did you know."

"I will only say this one time." the ranger said, "SO LISTEN UP! LET THE PRINCESS GO!"

Milleanna sighed again, "So, it seems her life is meaningless as well." She stared the human directly in the eye, "I'm guessing the King sent you after me."

"I don't know if you've noticed it" the human said, mockingly, "but you are in no position to be asking questions."

Milleanna laughed whole-heartedly, "You learn quickly hero. I'll give you that" she said, "but there's a good reason we're the best." Milleanna whirled around and grabbed the princess by the collar. She flung the little girl towards the ranger. The princess collapsed in his arms, unconscious. "You'll notice I've taken her ring." she said, "You should be starting to see things happen right about now." 

* * *

Aaron felt the ground begin to shift under his feet. He grabbed the princess and held her tightly in his arms. The dragon seemed to snap out of whatever pain numbing trance it was in and roared in pain and annoyance. Aaron recalled how many times he had stabbed the dragon in it's side. Any living creature would die from the blood loss after a time. The beast flapped its wings violently, but it was no use, its strength was waning and it plunged towards the earth, dragging Aaron and the princess down with it.

"Have a nice trip."


	2. Chapter 2

**Feb 12, X-2009**

"I'm back!" Milleanna cried. She folded her wings neatly on her back and landed gently on the balcony of the Flying Fortress.

The fortress was actually a castle mounted on the back of a dracolich. It was ten stories tall and covered almost the entire body of the largest dragon that had ever existed. The fortress was presently hovering above the Dwarfhold Mountains, slowly making its way south to Swordhaven as the emperor made his final preparations.

Several skeletons soldiers who were nearby began to swarm her. Although all the skeletons had been adult humans in life, or so she assumed, in their skeleton forms, they slouched and hunched over so that they were barely as tall as Milleanna herself.

She smiled and greeted each of them like old friends. "Hey guys." she said, "Nice to see you too. You don't know where Seppy is do you?"

Suddenly, the sound of maniacal laughter rang through the halls. A skeleton, shorter and more frail looking than the rest approached Milleanna. It had a crackled skull and carried a curved blade in its hands.

"Chuckles." Milleanna grinned. The good humored skeleton lived up to his name as the Emperor's court jester and right hand man. unlike most of the others Chuckles wasn't a solider or an adventurer in life, but had been a simple traveling bard whose wits and cunning remained unsurpassed. Milleanna found Chuckles surprisingly amusing, for a dead guy.

"Seppy around?" she asked.

Chuckles cackled and pointed down the hall. Milleanna headed in the direction he gestured towards. The interior of the fortress was massive with high ceilings and portraits of former rulers of the Shadowscythe hanging on the walls. Glow orbs hovered throughout the hall, giving it an eerie, almost unearthly shine.

As Milleanna walked down the hallway, she looked at the faces in the portraits. She had served the Shadowscythe Empire for generations longer than any of the others could remember, seen countless lords come and go, the greatest the empire had to offer, and the worst as well. She had see it all. Hundreds of skilled warriors who had brought the world to its knees, skilled tacticians who led the Empire to victory and brilliant minds who created magical devices that would leave even her with a lasting feeling of awe.

She reached the end of the hall and heaved a sigh of nostalgia. Then, she turned the door knob and entered the room. The Emperor's office was on the dark side of elegant. It was filled with fine, Vaekan-style furniture, including a desk adorned with dark matter sculpted to resemble roses and a black skull at the center of it all. A red rug lay in front of the desk with the Shadowscythe standard- a black dragon skull- at the center.

A man, if he could still be called such, sat at the desk writing a dispatch for warriors to be sent to Swordhaven and reading war reports. He wore a crimson red doomknight armor and a helmet which concealed almost the entirety of his face. The only thing visible were his eyes, which glowed a deep shade of red. Sepulchure; In the hundreds of Shadowscythe commanders Milleanna had worked under during her lifetime, he was by far the most powerful and the most cunning.

"Hey Seppy!" Milleanna cried as she entered the room. She always called the Emperor by that nickname. He despised it, but that was part of the reason she did it. This time however, the doomknight simply acknowledged her with a grunt and continued with his work without even glancing up. "That's it? No 'hello, how's it been?'." she said, slightly disappointed at the minimal response. "I leave for a few years and I've already been forgotten." she pouted.

Finally the doomknight stopped writing and looked up at her. "What are you doing here Stranger?" he groaned, sounding annoyed. "I thought I told you, you were to stay in Battleon and supervise the war effort."

"I did." she replied, hopping up onto his desk. She peered down at the papers on his desk. "But I got bored of that so now I'm here. I thought I'd visit you and Gravelyn since we haven't seen each other in so long."

"You brought the troops with you?"

"No, after I withdrew from Battleon I sent the forces on to Doomwood. I though Noxus would appreciate the extra troops."

"Fine." the doomknight said, nonchalantly. He got up from his seat. "All the pieces are in place and very soon, we will obtain what we have sought for so long."

"You know that isn't true." Milleanna said, "I hate that bitch as much as you do, but you don't really believe-"

"Silence!" he roared. His bright red eyes glowed passionately with anger.

Milleanna took a step back. "So when?"

"Midnight, tomorrow." he said, sitting back down.

"Ku boss."

"You will guard the fortress."

"You mean babysit Gravelyn." Milleanna growled. "In case you've forgotten, she's 20 year old now. Are you going to force her to live in this box the rest of her life?! What happens when you're gone?!" Milleanna stopped. She had gone too far. "I just wanted to warn you. We're nearly at the end of the line. Sooner of later… you'll have to decide; what's more important to you?"

_It's nearly time, little sister. Beware of an enemy, back from the dead._

Milleanna left the room. As she closed the door behind her, a young woman walked up to her. "Gravelyn."

Gravelyn had grown since the last time Milleanna had seen her. She remember the last time she visited the Flying Fortress the Empress was barely as tall as her shoulder. Now, she was several inches taller than Milleanna herself. "Long time no see kid. Well I guess I can't really call you kid anymore can I?" Milleanna laughed, "How long has it been?"

"Exactly 6 years." the Empress replied. "It's good to see you." She reached out for the handle of the door. "I want to speak with my father."

Milleanna reached out her hand to stop her. "I won't do that." she said. "You know how he is. Always cranky before he does these things." She lead Gravelyn away from the door. "We'll go to my quarters and you can tell me what's on your mind."

They walked up a flight of stairs and down a long winded hallway. Milleanna's chambers were of complete contrast with that of Sepulchure. Instead of a neat and slightly intimidating war room, her's was a cluttered, almost chaotic sea of files and research papers as far as the eye could see.

"Perhaps we should talk in my quarters." the Empress suggested.

"No, no." Milleanna insisted, pushing a stack of papers aside. She pulled out a plush and overstuffed couch out from the mess and invited Gravelyn to sit. Gravelyn sat down and Hellenca quickly rushed in with two glasses and a large pitcher filled with black liquid. She everything down on a table and dragged the table in front of the two women. She then proceeded to pour each of them a cup of black liquid.

"Thank you Hellenca. You may leave us now." Milleanna said, sitting down on the couch. She picked up the glass and took a long sip of the dark liquid. It was extremely bitter, but it wasn't bad, in fact in Milleanna's opinion in was exquisite. "So" she began, setting the glass back down on the table. she looked up and spotted Hellenca standing quietly beside the door. "What are you still doing here? I told you to leave." Milleanna said. Hellenca hesitated. "I said GET OUT!" Milleanna shouted. Hellenca flinched, then quickly left the room.

Milleanna shook her head as she watched the woman leave. "I don't know what she's thinking." she scowled, "She's so embarrassing." Then she turned back to Gravelyn. "Servants now a days. Tch." She sat back in her seat, reached into the pocket of her overcoat and pulled out an old fashioned pipe. She started puffing on it, but instead of obnoxious gray fumes, a soft purple cloud billowed out. To Milleanna, the smoke smelled bitter-sweet and pleasant. "So" she said, exhaling and blowing smoke rings out from her mouth, "Tell me what's on your mind." she said.

"I've been having dreams lately."

"About?"

"The past I think."

"Any particular time?"

"I think it was from when I was young. Maybe before I was born?"

"What makes you so sure of that?"

"I don't know. I just have this feeling. And there was this man. I've never seen him before, but for some reason I felt… like I knew him well."

"And what did this man, look like?" Milleanna asked.

"He had olive skin, green eyes and dark hair. And his name-"


	3. Chapter 3

**Feb 13, X-2009  
**  
_"Well hello!"_

Room B-15 of Swordhaven Castle. Standing next to the door you can feel your hair start to stand on end. Not cause of chills or fear, but another more powerful force, a sort of... electric vibe.

The room is the domain of Swordhaven's resident dracomancer Spencer Drake, the fifteen generation reincarnate of Imphetus, the Legendary Thunder dragon, not to mention legendary lady charmer.

_Like everyone else in castle Swordhaven at that moment, Spencer was preparing for war, but instead of rushing down the halls, he perches in his door frame, watching the other occupants of the castle come and go. Although the Emperor of the Shadowscythe made no confirmation when the day of attack would be, everyone knew that today would be the day. The Emperor was a careful man, he would never pass such an ideal opportunity to attack. But he would not be the only one who got an advantage by having an attack on this night. Even though it was still bright out, Spencer could feel a storm in the air. He knew it would reach Swordhaven before the Shadowscythe did, and that would be all the advantage he needed. _

* * *

The night they had all been waiting for had come at last. Milleanna stood at the edge of the flying fortress, the landscape of Swordhaven spread out before her eyes. "Alright." she commanded, gesturing towards the army of undead harpies. Each of the harpies were perched atop of a giant crate. "Follow my lead and remember to look alive!" Milleanna shouted. She leaned backwards, fells off the side of the fortress and plunged downwards through the freezing night air.

One by one, the harpies followed her, clutching the crates in their massive talons. After she had fallen what she guessed to be several hundred feet, she yanked the cord to her parachute. The parachute popped out of the bag and Milleanna was jolted upward slightly as the mechanism caught her fall. As she descended towards the capital, Milleanna noticed a small crew of archers had stationed themselves on the roof of the castle and were lifting their bows, preparing to fire.

She looked down. She was only a few hundred feet above the castle now. Directly below her was the palace garden, or more specifically, the pond. If the harpies got shot down now, they would drop the co tents of the crate into the water and the war would be over. "Listen up!" she shouted, "Steer clear of the water and drop of the luggage as soon as possible!"

The harpies let out a collective roar of acknowledgement and drove towards the ground, just as the first wave of arrows zipped through the air and shot down two of the harpies as they made their way to the ground. The harpies exploded into a cloud of bone dust and dropped the crates they were holding. They were however, well built and crashed to the ground without breaking. From inside, something began to bang on the sides of crate, desperately trying to force its way out. Within seconds they had managed blow through the walls of the crate and dozens of skeletons swarmed out into the grass.

The archers had shot a second wave of arrows at this point, several headed straight in Milleanna's direction. She tugged at the straps on the parachute, releasing it from her body and plunging 30 feet into the pond below.

* * *

"Stop!"

"Well look what we have here! If it isn't everyone's favorite wannabe. I guess they must treat you pretty well around here now that you've saved the princess and everything."

"Shut your mouth." Aaron said. He pulled the princess to his side. He had found her wandering the halls of the castle, apparently trying to get a piece of the action. "Stay close." he whispered.

"Well if you'll excuse me, I really don't have time to play right now." Milleanna said turning to walk away.

Aaron drew his sword and lunged toward Milleanna who twisted and ducked, avoiding Aaron's blade and swiping the ranger's knife from his belt. She twisted again, swinging into a kicked that landed at the center of Aaron's forehead, knocking him to the ground and sending the sword skidding just out of Aaron's reach.

Milleanna planted her foot on Aaron's right arm and sat down on his chest. She held the dagger to his neck until Aaron could feel a trickle of blood flow down his neck. He struggled to get his hands free. He did not have to fight hard, Milleanna was surprisingly light.

Aaron swung his arm wildly and shocked Milleanna in the face. He shoved the girl off his chest, snatched the knife from her hand and plunged in into her stomach.

Milleanna let out a cough and doubled over in pain as blood welled out of the gash in her side. She pulled the dagger out with one hand and clutched her wound with the other. She dropped the dagger to the ground, staining the carpet with blood.

Aaron took a closer look at the dagger. Milleanna's blood was pitch black. He looked back at the girl who had collapsed and was lying on the ground, breathing heavily, but otherwise motionless. "What are you?" he whispered. He towards Milleanna's discarded body but, just as he was reaching out to touch her wounded side, her body disappeared in a swirl of black feathers.

* * *

Spencer was perched on the dragon shaped fountain in the courtyard of the castle when the attack began. He looked up at the sky as the first wave of arrows soared up into the air and shot down two of the massive harpies. He closed his eyes and focused, ignoring the chaos around him. It would be harder with all the harpies in the sky, but if the lighting happened to shoot one or two of them down then all the better right?

"I summon the spirit of the Thunder dragon, Imphetus. Lean me your power!" he cried as a bolt of lighting rain down from the sky and sent a charge of energy that spread through every inch of his body.

Spencer felt his body being to expand. His skin became rough and scaly and his teeth turned into a pair of sharp fangs which, from experience, Spencer knew could easily slice its way through solid rock.

He darted straight upwards, knocking harpies out of the sky like paper airplanes. He continued upwards, closer and closer to the Shadowscythe Fortress which was mounted atop the bones of the Ancient Dragon of Darkness. He let out a roar that shattered the windows of the fortress spraying broken glass everywhere. Spencer flew upwards till he reach the edge of the fortress then abruptly dove towards the ground, his tail slamming into to side of the fortress.

He launched several more attacks, but non seemed to even scratch the bones of the ancient dragon who was many times bigger than Spencer even in his dragon form.

"Enough!" a voice boomed. Suddenly Spencer found his body being crushed by an invisible force. He tried to lift his head, but found he was completely immobilized. He managed to rolled his eyes upwards to see the face of his attack, or rather where his face might have been, for his features were covered by a crimson dragon helm. The only thing that shone through, were the glistening red eyes of a demon.

* * *

"Spencer! Spencer! Hey buddy you 'wake?"

Spencer coughed. His body was drenching in freezing water from head to toe. He shivered in the cold night air. "Runil?" he said weakly, "What happened?"

"You took a pretty bad fall, but you're alright now." Runil said. The baby dragon nudged a strand of Spencer's wet hair with his claw. "Sorry you're wet, when I saw you falling from the sky, I tried to catch you, but you're heavier than you look and I kinda dropped you in the lake by accident. Sowee."

"Forget it." Spencer said, "You probably saved my life anyways. Where are we?"

"The wine cellar." Runil said, "I dragged you down here so that the undead won't get you while you were unconscious."

"What?!" Spencer shouted, sitting up with a start. "How long have I been down here?!"

"No worries." Runil said, "Half an hour tops, and that's taking to account how fast human time runs."

Spencer darted up the stairs of the wine cellar, trying to make his way back to the fight. It would be midnight in half an hour, he only hoped that he would make it in time.


	4. Chapter 4

**Feb 13, X-2009  
11:55 pm**

Milleanna tore through the vents which was easier than it sounded in her intangible form. She felt as if her body was everywhere and at the same time nonexistent.

Soon she sensed an opening in the vent and burst through the shaft door. Her body began molding together as the swarm of feathers formed a single black crow. She saw that she was exactly where she wanted to be. She spotted Alteon in the back of the room with a small group of knights clustered around him like a swarm of bees.

The knights were each armed to the tooth. Most of them held spears while those who were strong enough carried heavy looking axes Milleanna was sure could slice a human's head clean off. Strapped around each of their chests were enough grenades to destroy a small town.

Milleanna spread her wings and began drive bombing the knights one by one, pulling their helmets over their eyes and leaving them to swing their weapons aimlessly through the air. She heard a few of them shout things like, "Its her!" and "If she's her Sepulchure won't be far behind!" and "Someone kill that bird!"

Milleanna smirked. She longed to jeer, throw around a few mocking comments, but she knew anything she said would drown out the thrill of hearing their annoyed frustration.

"Gotcha!" a voice said suddenly from behind and before Milleanna had a chance to react, a large net came down on top of her, trapping her in its webbing. She tried to free herself, but only managed to trigger and electric shock that left her spasming inside the net.

"We got her men!" the knight that was holding the net said. The knights cheered.

"Let's not get ahead of ourselves." another pointed out, "This is far from over."

As if in replied, the door to the throne room suddenly burst open and a doomknight with blazing red armor accompanied by a much shorter skeleton walked in.

_"Seppy!"_ Milleanna cried, speaking in the tongue of darkness.

The knights charged at the lord of the Shadowscythe almost by instinct. Raising their weapons and letting out battlecries as soon as the doomknight appeared. The knight that was holding Milleanna's net immediately dropped it and rushed to help his companions.

Milleanna fell to the ground and instantly started nibbling at the webbing with her beak. When she had cut out a hole large enough for her to escape through she shook the remaining netting off her shoulders and quickly tossed it aside.

She spread her wings and prepared to join the action. _"I'm stuck!"_ she cried in horror. The net must have been woven out of light essence. The effect would wear off eventually, but for now she was stuck.

Chuckles walked up to her and laughed. It was obvious he recognized her. _"You know eventually I'm turning back right?"_ she hissed. She flapped her wings, levitating until she was at eye level with Chuckles. Then, with a single well aimed kicked, shoved Chuckle's skull clean off his shoulders.

As the Shadowscythe court jester ran after his run away head which, humorously began rolling away from him, Milleanna turned her attention back to the fight. She could see Alteon was already out of breath. The aging king landed a final desperate blow and the doomknight was pushed across the room by and invisible force and sent crashing into the wall.

Sepulchure however, was unharmed. Alteon fell down on one knee, exhausted. The doomknight loomed over the fallen king. Alteon winced and attempted to get to his feet. "Sepulchure you're reign of death and destruction shall end will my next strike! I shall unleash the power of the Golden Dragon Sword and destroy you!"

Milleanna rolled her eyes. _"What the hell is up with the shitty foreplay?"_

But before either of them could make another move, Chuckle's body exploded into bone dust, leaving his head cowering behind Alteon's throne.

Just then, a figure landed on the balcony and Milleanna saw a man she had long since believed to be dead. No… more precisely, she had herself witnessed his death years ago. It was impossible yet the man standing before her was…

"Drakath!" Sepulchure and Alteon both snarled in unison.

Drakath Slugwrath. It had been more than 10 years since Sepulchure had drove the doomblade through his chest and tossed him off the Flying Fortress. It was impossible for a human to survive such a wound, not to mention the fall.

Drakath carried an enormous sword and wore a bulky gray and purple armor that was too big for his body. On his back were two huge, leather, bat wings which folded neatly around his shoulders like a cape.

Milleanna was too shocked to move. All she could do was watch in horror as Drakath lifted his sword and stuck both men against the walls. Alteon fell to the ground and struggled not to lose consciousness as small purple eyes appeared on his skin and clung to his armor.

She stood silently watching as Sepulchure got up, "Fool! You can not kill what is already undead!" Sepulchure roared.

"My mistake" Drakath leaped followed and tore through the doomknight's chest. He pulled out a small red orb.

_"NO!"_ Milleanna screamed. She flung herself at Drakath, aiming for the red orb he held in his hand. Suddenly everything went black.


	5. Chapter 5

**Feb 14, X-2009  
12:00 am**

Aaron snatched Tera by the hand and dragged her down the hallway. "I know where she's headed." he told the girl, "Where is the throne room?"

"Down the hall and to the left." Tera replied meekly. "Then up the stairs."

"Your father is in danger." Aaron said. Suddenly, as if to confirm his theory, a tremor shook the whole castle, sending dust and debris in every direction.

Aaron turned the corner and headed up the stairs, batting hordes of undead out of the way. He held the princess close to his body, shielding her head with his arm while using his other hand to hold off the enemy.

When he got to the throne room he found that the door had been blown off it's hinges. "Stay here." he instructed, motioning for Tera to wait outside. Aaron walked over the bodies of several fallen knights, careful not to step on any of them. He entered the room and saw the king lying in one corner, unconscious. He looked around the room, waving his sword around threatening in case there were any hidden enemies. But all he saw was a small crow lying motionless at the center of the room.

Suddenly he heard a noisy coming from the doorway and turned around. A man wearing a skin tight pink jumpsuit stood in the door frame, surveying the havoc.

"Its you." Aaron said, as he recognized the man. He was a dracomancer, by the name of Spencer, or something like that.

"By the Ancients… I didn't think there would be any survivors after that explosion. What happened?"

"I don't know. I just got here." Aaron said quietly.

"Big Brother! Are you okay?" Tera called from outside.

"Yea." Aaron replied.

"My King!" Spencer shouted as he leapt over the bodies of the fallen knights and scramble to Alteon's side. He bent down and checked to make sure the older man was still breathing. He lifted his head and let out a sigh of relief, "Thank the Avatars."

Just then a knight dress in golden armor and a helmet sculpted to resemble a lion's head walked in. "I'll take in from here gentlemen." the golden knight said with an air of authority.

He was accompanied by several knights and a dozen healers the latter of whom rushed immediately to Alteon's side. The golden knight pointed at the crow lying on the ground "Restrain her!" he said.

"What should we do with her Sir Lionfang?" one of the knights asked, tossing the crow into a small bird cage.

"Throw her in the dungeon."


	6. Chapter 6

**Feb 13, X-2009 **

**11:40 pm**

Tera opened the door a crack and looked outside. The knights had locked her and her sisters in the basement, but she didn't want to be cooped up while there was plenty of action going on upstairs. She had already seen Victoria seek out of the room when she thought Tera wasn't looking.

"Where are she going?" Brittany asked, when she saw that her little sister was trying to sneak out of the room.

"Um…" Tera mumbled, "I just needed to go to the bathroom."

"Whatever." Brittany groaned, she turned away and pretended to fall asleep.

Tera slowly crept up the stairs. She was a bit nervous for she was unarmed and would be vulnerable if she were to be attacked. She wondered what Victoria was up to, but mostly she just wanted to find the person who had taken her ring. She longed to get it back. It was the first piece of magic she had ever used and it would also be the key to getting her out of this boring town. She would travel all over Lore just like her big brother did and finally find her mother.

Her father hardly even talked about her and both her sisters had been too young to remember much. No one had ever told her what happened to her, but Tera would bet anything that her mother had left for the same reason she wanted to leave; because it was boring.

She remembered one of her nursemaids telling her once that her mother had been a mage. She would often dream of her mother strong and beautiful, traveling all around the country to new and exciting places. She knew that if she were in her shoes, she would never return to such a dull and uneventful town. That's why she had to go out and find her. She would look for her and know exactly who she was the moment she saw her and her mother would recognize her too. They would travel the world together and her mother would teach her magic.

"You shouldn't be wandering around alone like this you know." a voice said.

Tera jumped and let out a nearly irresistibly cute squeal of fright. She turned around. It was the girl that had stolen her ring! The girl looked about the same age as Victoria and wore a dark red trench coat with large pockets. Tera was positive that the ring was in one of the pockets.

"It dangerous you know. You could get hurt." the girl whispered. She kneel down on the ground, a height which she was about eye level with Tera.

"Give me back my ring!" she cried.

"What do you want it for?" she asked.

"I need it to find my mom." Tera said.

The girl flinched. Then she said slowly, "Well what's your mother's name?"

"Lynaria Alteon."

"Lynaria…" she repeated.

"Do you know her?" Tera cried, happily, "Your name is Milleanna Stranger isn't it?"

"How did you know that?" Milleanna asked.

"My sisters told me." she said, "You with the Shadowscythe so you must travel a lot right? That mean you have to know her."

Milleanna shook her head, "I'm afraid I don't. The worlds a big place. Your mom could be anywhere" Then she reached into her pocket and pulled out a ring. Tera's eyes shone with eagerness as the girl slipped the ring onto her finger. "But I have a feeling you'll find her. There's a land somewhere far away that's were your real family is. There are all kinds of wonderful magics there and things whose beauty surpasses anything you will find in this world."

"Do you think my mother be there?"

Milleanna nodded. "But paradise is not for failures, train hard and become strong, then maybe…"

Milleanna paused for a moment, then before Tera had a chance to react, she grabbed the princess's arms and swung her to one side. A massive axe, wielded by the larges skeleton Tera had ever seen fell into the stop she had been standing just moments before.

"Fuck off you son of a bitch!" Milleanna cried. She snatched the skeleton's skull off its body and tossed it several yards down the hall.

Milleanna ushered Tera back down to the basement. "It's not safe up here. Go back down with your sisters."

"NO!" Tera protested, "I want to go with you! I don't want to stay in this boring town anymore."

"Ah!" Milleanna cried in frustration. "Seriously? Talk about a bad judge of character! What does your dad teach you?" Tera opened her mouth to replied, but Milleanna cut her off, "Don't answer that."

Milleanna pried the little girls' hands off her coat and started to walk away, but before she was half way down the hall she was stopped by a familiar voice, "Stop!"

"Can't a person walk away in peace!"


	7. Chapter 7

**Feb 14, X-2009**

**9:30 pm **

Milleanna groaned. It wasn't time to to be dosing off and dreaming about kids looking for their mothers. What the hell was she think? She needed to focus on finding a way out of her cell, she didn't have time to be thinking about horny kings. She had to-

_"Sep-" _she hissed, choking in the middle of his name. She had aimed for the orb in Drakath's hand and… She coughed again, this time more forcefully. A small red stone fell out of her mouth and onto the floor of the cell. She picked it up and examined it in the palm of her hand. _"A little something to remember you by, old friend." _she whispered putting the stone in her pants pocket.

She got up and walked up to the bars of the cell she was in. Someone had left a tray of slop on the floor outside her cell and by the looks of it, it had been put there several hours ago.

"Do they always have such lousy service for their guests?" she mumbled, "You could at least get the sleeping schedule right! Its noon to 9:30! And midnight on holidays and weekends!"

She kicked the tray of "food" away from the cell, it barely looked editable anyways, not that she needed to eat. They had taken her coat which meant she couldn't use magic.

_"This is shameful. What in Darkness am I going to do brother? I gave up my life, my power. I put everything I had in it, but it was all in vain. My power is who I am so what am I without it? A human? Can I even be called a Spirit of Darkness?"_

_"You must escape. You are too dependent on your magic. With or without it you must survive and find your path to victory. That is the pride of being Shadowscythe, little sister."_

* * *

**Feb 14, X-2009**

**6:00 pm**

Spencer walked into the King's chambers with Runil perched on his shoulder. The king had sent for him and the ranger to meet him in his chambers, although why, he was still unaware.

"Your Majesty?" he said as he got down on one knee, beside him he could see Aaron attempting to imitate his position. Runil leapt of his shoulder and crouched down on the ground.

"Did you see what happened last night?"

"No sire, I'm afraid not. Aaron and I both arrived afterwards."

"You were fighting Sepulchure right?" Aaron said.

"Yes." Alteon said, weakly, "But there was someone else."

"Milleanna right?" Spencer drove his elbow, into Aaron's stomach, warning him to shut his mouth.

"Yes, but there was also someone else that night. Someone who I and everyone else in Swordhaven had long believed to be dead."

"Who was it your Majesty?" Spencer asked.

"Drakath."

"Drakath?" Spencer echoed. He had heard stories of the former prince of Swordhaven. Almost 30 years ago, Alteon had defeated the tyrant king Slugwrath and was afterwards hailed as a hero, his son, Drakath vowed to avenge his father's death and regain his rightful place as the King of Swordhaven. But he had not been seen since. When his father was killed he had been little more than a child. He couldn't have been older than 10 or maybe 15.

"He killed Sepulchure and then he said, this" Alteon paused for a moment and took a deep breath. He was having trouble breathing it seemed. The healers all said that he was suffering from some sort of new disease none of them had ever seen before. If only his sister was here. She was one of the greatest healers Spencer had ever meant. He was sure she would be able to find a solution, but she had gone off to study herbs a few years ago and he hadn't heard from her since.

"He said, that our fight was over and that chaos would one day triumph over both the Kingdom and the Empire… 13 lords of Chaos… and the end. He was going to bring about a new order, and that he was going to let the three of us live until the end so that we could watch… watch as the world tore itself apart."

Spencer stared into the King's eyes in horror. "We must send our army to hunt this Drakath down and slay him." Aaron cried, "There is only one of him. I will gladly volunteer."

"No," Alteon said, sounding defeated, "This is bigger than all of us combined. We must… find allies, if we are to stand a chance against this enemy. Sepulchure… has a daughter."

"WHAT?!" both men shouted in unison.

"You must seek her out as soon as possible, if any of us are to survive."

* * *

**Feb 14, X-2009**

**10:00 pm **

"Well if it isn't everyone's favorite hero! And it looks like he's got himself a pet!" she said, mockingly.

"We heard they were keeping you here." Aaron said.

"What do you want?" Milleanna said, "Oh wait, I know. The King sent you to make a deal. He wants you to convince me to tell you were the Flying Fortress is in return for letting me go is that it?"

"Actually its quite the opposite." Spencer said. "He wants us to keep you here until the Shadowscythe agrees to make a truce with us."

"A truce?"

"Apparently, his Majesty was attack last night during his battle with your Emperor. He thinks the man who attacked him was the son of the former King of Swordhaven, Drakath Slugwrath."

"Well he thought wrong." Milleanna growled, "Drakath died years ago. I should know, we're the ones that killed him. I don't know who on Lore that was last night, but there's no way in Light it was Drakath."

"Either way, his Majesty is will to make a truce with the Empire. If we are to defeat our common enemy, we will need all the help we can get. If Gravelyn agrees-" Spencer said.

"How do you know about her?!" Milleanna snarled. She stuck one arm through the bars of the cells and flailed it around wildly.

"That's not important, we-"

"Say, could you get my jacket for me? I'm its around here somewhere. There's a bit of a nip in the air."

"Don't play with me! Your coat is filled with your magic."

"Well you can't blame me for trying."

"Why do you even need that stuff?" Aaron asked, "Aren't demon suppose to have really high level magic or something?"

"I'm very deep."

"So?" Spencer asked, "Do we have an agreement?"

"Agree that pink is totally not your color?" Milleanna mocked, "Yes."

"This is getting us nowhere." Aaron said, "Let's come back later."

Milleanna watched them leave and a smiled crossed her lips. "Let that be a lesson to you, hero. Always leave your weapons outside the dungeon." She pulled the dagger she had swiped from Aaron's belt out of her sleeve and started to pick at the cell's lock. "Luckily for me, this place always did have poor security."


	8. Chapter 8

**Feb 15, X-2009**

**8:00 am**

Aaron looked around the shattered remains of the throne room. Some time during the night, one of the knights had sounded the alarm that Milleanna had escaped the dungeons and there had been a frantic surround all throughout the town in an attempt to locate and apprehend the fugitive, but it seemed that she had already left town.

Aaron groaned. How could he have been so stupid. It had been his dagger that she had used to pick her way out of her cell. At least she seemed to have taking the dagger with her. If she had left in on the floor of the dungeon and someone had happened upon it before he had, he would have been in serious trouble.

Suddenly he heard a noise coming from behind King Alteon's throne. It was a little shriek of amusement that ended abruptly. Aaron walked up to the throne and did his best to move it aside. He managed to move in a few inches. Rolling around in a giant hole craved into the back of the throne as a skull. When it spotted Aaron, it let out a nervous chuckle.

* * *

**Feb 18, X-2009**

**9:00 pm**

_It's been three weeks since the death of the doomknight Sepulchure, Champion of Darkness and Lord of the Shadowscythe. I have offered to take his place as I have often done as a new Champion comes of age, but Gravelyn was adamant in proving that she would be a suitable heir for her father._

I for one have no objections. Even in the days of her father I would often spend my time traveling Lore and would hardly ever spend more than a fortnight at the Flying Fortress. Some have suggested to me that I seek the next champion of darkness, the one chosen by darkness to rule the empire. I have pretended to be ignorant of his existence up to this point, but I have long since discovered the whereabouts of the next champion. However, I have not bothered to seek him out for he is… less than desirable.

Milleanna put down her pen and heaved a sigh. They would be arriving soon. It was important to make good first impressions especially after her six years of absence. She straightened the collar on her trenchcoat and brush a few specks of dust off her sweater. "You look fine my lady." Hellenca said smiling.

"I know." Milleanna replied. "How are the workers today?" she asked, referring to the crew of workers to restore the part of the fortress had been damaged by Drakath's attack. It would be a long time before the fortress could once again rule the skies, but Milleanna was optimistic.

"Well," Hellenca said, "They've already pieced the parts of the dracolich skeleton which shifted in the attack, but they had yet to repair the damage to the outer wall."

"That's fine." Milleanna said, gulping down a glass of dark liquid. She exited the room, walked down the hall and climbed the stairs to the top of the west tower to the war room. Gravelyn was already sitting in her father's usual place. "They'll be here any minute now." Milleanna said as she walked in and sat down beside her.

"Who is Drakath, really?" Gravelyn said. Her voice was calm, but there was a cynical edge to it that told Milleanna the Empress was serious. "You told me he was nobody." Gravelyn got up eruptly and turned to face Milleanna. "But nobody couldn't kill my father!" she screamed, clenching her fists and flashing Milleanna a deadly glare. "Tell me the truth." she said in a hushed tone.

"That wasn't Drakath." Milleanna said, "It couldn't have been. He dead years ago."

"Could you be sure of that?" Gravelyn asked.

"Yes."

"Did father kill him?"

"Yes."

"Okay." Gravelyn said, sitting back down, "I believe you."

"My lady. Empress." Hellenca said, nodding in respect as she entered the room. She carried a tray with several glasses and a pitcher on it. "The Five have arrived."

The Five Brothers of Darkness or "the Five" as they were sometimes called, consisted of five generals handpicked by Sepulchure to rule a specific region of the Empire. They were all extremely powerful warriors of Darkness whom had sworn allegiance to Sepulchure and were responsible as a whole for manage order within the Empire.

Milleanna watched as each member of the Five entered, followed by several of their attendants. The first to enter was Noxus, Head of the Necropolis, accompanied by several skeleton guards. The necromancer was one of Sepulchure early followers as well the most senior member of the Five. The Necropolis was responsible for supplying the Shadowscythe with its vast and infinite army of undead.

Next were Lord Bludrut of Skullholme and Lady Bayn of Darkovia. The two walked hand in hand and were accompanied by two muscular golden draconian guards. There was a rumor that the two were lovers and by they entered it seemed as if the rumors were true. Shadowfall, the Empire's capitalm hidden deep within the mountains of Skullholme was the home of many of the followers of darkness as well as many powerful dark robe wizards. Lord Bludrut was a tall, broad shoulder and stoic, if not a bit paranoid. The deathknight wore a full suit of armor and a cape. All were designed to protect him from a stab in the back by an assassin.

Lady Bayn on the other hand was a calm and collected mistress who went most places alone without being accompanied by guards for she claimed her beasts were all the guards she would ever need. She had a huge python was draped around her shoulders like a boa. Darkovia was a land of beasts. "Beauty and grace are virtues in their own way" Bayn liked to say. She was the one who came up with the idea to use undead harpies to carry undead down from the fortress.

Following Bayn was the Primarch of Falguard. Falguard was home to a race called the Darkblood, who, a best as Milleanna could describe them, were a kind of humanoid goat hybrid. Falguard also contain Lore's largest collection of scrolls and records. The Darkblood were priests and warriors who war-shipped darkness. The Primarch himself was a dedicated scholar and being so was a creature of logic.

Milleanna took a long sip from one of the glasses Hellenca had brought. Suddenly a young man wearing a dusty gray cloak and straw hat rushed into the room. Milleanna recognized him as Nicodowa of Dwarfhold. The man apologized for being late and explained that it was due to a cave in at one of the mines. Dwarfhold provided the Shadowscythe with its wealth as well as weapons and armor for its warriors. They forged the greatest steel in all of Lore. Dwarves mines were vast and always plentiful. Nicodowa a respectful and humble young man probably due to the fact that he was the youngest and newest member of the Five. His hat covered most of this features and even Milleanna couldn't tell whether he was a human, dwarf or maybe a hybrid of several races, but she did know that he was well like by the dwarves, most of whom were under his leadership.

Milleanna took another sip out of the glass while in her mind trying to devise a plan to knock Nicodowa hat off without him noticing. Suddenly Noxus rose from his chair, "It's true!" he demanded, slamming his skeleton fist down on the table. "You told me that smile was killed over a decade ago!"

"Exactly 17 years, 5 months and 3 days ago." the Primarch remarked.

"Whatever." Noxus said.

"And I said then was true. And it still holds true." Milleanna said casually.

"That's… logical." the Primarch said.

"I have to agree." Lady Bayn added. "Was Drakath the one who killed Sepulchure or not?"

"Stranger!" Lord Bludrut said, "Explain yourself!"

"Darling." Lady Bayn said, softly, trying to get him to calm down.

"Who's Drakath" Nicodowa asked. Everyone ignored him.

"It's simple. It was an impostor."

"Why would someone want to pose as that bumbling baffon?" Lord Bludrut asked.

"Because." Milleanna said, "He was the one person that both Alteon and Sepulchure saw as an enemy. Taking his image was probably meant to serve as a sign that he intends to destroy both or kingdoms."

"That seem most logical." the Primarch nodded.

"That's right." a voice said. All at once, everyone got to their feet and looked around wildly, trying to find out where the voice came from. "Tell them Milleanna. Tell them whatever lies you wish, but the truth is I am VERY MUCH REAL!"

"Drakath…" Milleanna said through gritted teeth.

"Oh, so you haven't forget me. Well it's nice to see that I've been remembered after being gone so long. And I have been gone a LONG time, but I am still very much alive."

All of a sudden, an object fell from midair and landed at the center of the table. The Primarch was the first to reach for it. "It seems to be some sort of amulet." he remarked. The ran his paw across the amulet's surface. On it was an image painted in red of a man wearing a jeweled crown. "It has a symbol carved into the center of it, but I can't say I've seen it before."

The rest of the crowd gathered around the table all shifted over to look at the amulet, each of them trying to identify the strange crest craved into the center. Milleanna however remained seated. Even from a distance she knew exactly what the crest meant. A red king, the Blood King, standard of the former head of Castle Swordhaven, King Slugwrath.

* * *

**Feb 23, X-2009**

**2:00 am**

They had been discovered. For the last few days it seemed as if all was well. Things seemed to be slowly going back to normal. Gravelyn had taken her father's place as ruler of the Shadowscythe Empire. There was some grumbling about the whole affair at first, but no one else stepped up to take the throne, which to Milleanna was a relief. After their failed Doomsday plot and "Drakath's" apparent return, she didn't feel like starting another war just yet. Besides there was still something she had to see for herself, but before that, there was this.

Milleanna looked down at Chuckle's skull which lay on the ground at her feet. The little bastard had lead the whole Swordhaven army to their door. She sighed it was useless to try to talk sense with undead. She bent down and picked up the skull, "What on Lore am I going to do with you?" she sighed.

Milleanna looked behind her. Inside the massive double doors was the war room which was now occupied by 3 or 4 dozen of Swordhaven's finest, Alteon and the mangy dragon-boy, not to mention the mercenary playing dress up knight.

Her hand instinctive shifted to the place Aaron had stabbed her. It had been nearly two weeks since Sepulchure had died, but the injuries she had received still hadn't fully healed. She remembered the days where her wounds would heal in moments instead of weeks. How far those days seemed now. Maybe Noxus had been right, maybe it was time for her to hang up her coat. Someone else would continue what she had started.

Suddenly the door opened at the dragon-boy came out, his lizard pet clinging onto his shoulder like a drowned cat. "Are you satisfied? You got your truce."

"Shouldn't you be in there too? I thought you were the Shadowscythe's second in command? You should be listening to what they say, it concerns you too."

"Did the Empress sent you to get me?"

"No."

"Then don't tell me how to do my job!" Milleanna snapped, "I've been in this position since before your great- grandfather was a thought in his not yet existing parents' brains. Besides," she added, "I never cared for politics. I just know that I will destroy the man who took our future from us, whoever he is."

"Its weird, for the first time in thousands of years light and darkness are on the same side." Spencer said, quietly.

"No. The Kingdom and the Empire are no the same side. This has nothing to do with the Elemental Planes."

"So what are you trying to say?" Spencer asked.

"The war between the Avatars will not cease until one of the factions have won. They couldn't be less concerned with Chaos. This is our problem, we can't rely on their assistance."

"But aren't you one of them?" Spencer whispered as Milleanna walked away, "So why are you talking as if they're someone else?"

As Milleanna turned the corner and disappeared, Aaron opened the door and came out to stand beside Spencer. "Where's Milleanna?"

"She just left. Why?" Spencer asked.

"The King and Empress want me to team up with her." he grumbled.

"Team up?" he echoed.

"Yea." he folded his arms and gritted his teeth, "From today forward, we're suppose to be partners."


	9. Chapter 9

**Note: **_Italics_ are in another language

* * *

**Feb 25, X-2009**

**11:30 pm**

_"Thanatos! Open the bridge!"_ Milleanna shouted. She had wandered far from Shadowfall, into a dark hollow where the trees' branches intertwined and shaded the forest from all light. Here she knew, was the hidden bridge that lead to the Death's Realm. She had come here for one purpose, to seek the truth.

_"Come in."_ a voice echoed through the woods. The trees around her spiraled and swirled, the it vanished giving way to blackness. _"Welcome, to my humble home."_ Thanatos bowed.

He was dressed in a black velvet cloak that masked his features and carried a scythe in one bony hand. As far as Milleanna knew, it was just for show. The ruler of the underworld, Thanatos, spent his days in the Underworld peering through scrying orbs at the world above and shattering hourglasses when it was time for a person to die. He had no need for a weapon.

In the distance Milleanna heard the sounds of two powerful and vast armies clashing. _"Excuse the ruckus. Nulgath and _Dage_ are at it again."_ Thanatos grumbled.

The archfiend and his apprentice had been at it for Voidstar knew how long. They fought for control of the Underworld as well as the title of "Master of Darkness." They had paused their battle for the last 20 years when Sepulchure rose to power and had proven to be more powerful either of them, but now that he was gone, the necromancer and archfiend had resumed their battle.

_"They battle without a moment of rest. It is quite a racket, but does provide some amusement. They've been fighting so long for the Underworld, I don't think they remember that the Underworld belongs to, and always will belong to, yours truly. Neither of them could ever hope to have it for themselves. When one of them finally manages to overpower the other he will find that he will always be chained to me."_ he laughed.

_"B__ut nevermind all that."_ he added swiftly changing topics, _"So where is it?"_

_"That's none of your business." _Milleanna said teasingly.

_"Oh please little sister! I've done so much for you already! Just let me look for a second! Please just a peek!" _Thanatos begged.

_"Oh come on Tassy. I came to talk business." _she said playfully. She leaned backwards and a the shadows wove themselves to form an armchair under her. "_Talk first then, just maybe I'll let you look."_

"Alright, alright." Thanatos chuckled and sat down. Then he lifted his hand and snapped. "Isia!" he hollered as the image of a young woman materialized beside him.

The woman wore a black hooded cloak, boots and mouthguard. In her hand she held a deadly looking scythe.

_"Got yourself a new assistant I see."_ Milleanna hissed, staring at the woman. Something about her seemed oddly familiar. _"Can it talk?" _she teased.

_"I'm girl. Not it." _she said with a heavy human accent.

_"Not bad, for a three year old."_

Isia growled. "Girls, girls please!" Thanatos said in human. "Well I was going to ask if you wanted refreshments, but I can see we're beyond that now so tell me Milleanna, _why are you here_?" Thanatos asked.

"Let me see the soul of Drakath Slugwrath."

* * *

**Feb 25, X-2009**

**12:00 am**

Thanatos smiled under the hood of his cloak and led Milleanna through the caverns of the Underworld. Isia followed close behind her mentor, shooting angry glares at Milleanna every once and a while. Milleanna just smiled and shrugged innocently.

Water dripped from the ceiling and shadows danced across the wall. Thanatos dispelled a barrier leading to one of the caves and entered. The cave was large and the walls were smoother than most. A strange purple moss grew on the ceiling and was starting to creep down the walls. At the center of the cavern was a large pool of pale purple liquid. An lavender colored orb was floating above the water. Tentacles had sprouted from the orb and stuck to the sides of the cavern.

"You knew didn't you?" Thanatos said. "You knew all along it was the real Drakath. Despite the sheer impossibility of it, deep down you knew it was really him. So why did you lie? Were you thinking of keeping order?" Thanatos asked. "Well, there is no order left. Chaos has possessed Lore long before light or even darkness has."

"Why?" Milleanna asked, barely able to contain her anger. "Sepulchure is dead. Dethrix is dead! I gave up everything! So why? Why in the hell is that BITCH STILL ALIVE!"

Milleanna fell to her knees and said in an echoed whispered, "I gave up everything back then, but it didn't make a difference. Everyone… everyone still died anyways. So what could this mean? Could it be that it was simply never meant to be? But then what have we been fighting for all these years?"

"Nothing." Thanatos said, coldly. Milleanna looked up at her older brother who smiled at her gently. It was the first time in her life she had seen him smile and it was… sickening. "Many years ago, I decided that I had grown tired of living under our father. Perhaps when he is exterminated-"

Milleanna whipped out a wand from the pocket of her trenchcoat. She aimed the tip at Thanatos and fired it with all her might. "Foolish child. You can not kill death." But Milleanna didn't care, she slashed the wand multiple times through the air shooting bolts of black lightening from it's tip.

"What in the hell is the matter with you?!" Milleanna shouted. From the edge of her vision, Milleanna could see an object shoot towards her. Before she could react Isia shoved her against the wall of the cave.

"Ha! A three year old could have dodged that!" she taunted, the color of her eyes changing from blue to bright purple.

"You seem vexed little sister." Thanatos said, laughing as he easily dodged each of Milleanna's blows. "Well then I'll let you in on a little secret." He bent down until he was almost at eye level with Milleanna and whispered in her ear, "She's back." Milleanna's eyes widened, if her brother was saying what she thought he was…

"She's back." he said again, "She's slowly wakening and soon she will be unleashed."

Milleanna let out a cry of frustration and shocked her brother in the jaw. He staggered a few steps back, turned his head to Isia and nodded who darted forward and proceeded to kicking Milleanna roughly in the stomach.

"His soul." Milleanna said weakly, "You said you wanted to see it, isn't that right brother?"

Thanatos held up his hand and Isia stopped. "Are you trying to make a deal with me?" he asked.

Milleanna smirked, "Not exactly." She opened stretched out her hand and resting in her palm was a small crimson stone that emitted an eerie red glow.

"Ah, magnificent!" Thanatos cried, completely consumed by the crystal's aura.

Suddenly Milleanna's body was engulfed by red light. "What is she doing?!" Isia cried.

"She's using the power contain in the doomknight's soul to enhance her own magical abilities." Thanatos shouted.

"Is that even possible?!" Isia cried.

"Of course!" Milleanna hissed. Her body shrunk down to the size of a small dog, wings sprouted from her back and her feet morphed into talons. When the light dimmed she had transformed into a crow, but this time her feathers were blood red. "A three year old could do it!"

She rose into the air with amazing speed and dove down on Isia created a massive cut that stretched from her shoulder to the middle of her stomach. The cut tore clean through her clothes and deep through her skin.

Milleanna whirled around and dove again, this time straight at the direction of the pool. "Miasma!" she cried as green energy spiraled around her wings, but before the attack could make contract with the orb, it was deflected and crashed into the wall of the cave.

Milleanna quickly changed back into her human form and landed, unscathed at the floor of the cave.

"Nice try." Thanatos said. "But no one can shatter them but me." Then his face softened and his red eyes glowed gently, "You know, you and I are very much alike. We are both are both outcasts. The difference is that I know when to call it quits. There is no need to be so devoted to a tree that bares to fruit."

"Well I guess you and I have different ideals then huh?" Milleanna cried, bashing Thanatos with a headbutt as she got to her feet. Thanatos stumbled backwards, but quickly recovered and lashed out at Milleanna scratching her across the face.

"Luckily for you killing you is not in my best interests… for now." Thanatos said, "But do not think you will be welcome should you foolishly decide to return."


	10. Chapter 10

**March 10, X-2009 **

**10:30 am**

_After the Shadowscythe's attack almost a month ago, I fear the worst. Evil has crept into Swordhaven and infected it to it's very core; his Majesty, the king, whom I fear at the present is suffering from some new and potentially lethal virus brought about by the return of Drakath. Symptoms of this virus seem to include alteration of skin and eye pigments, development of eye-like sores on the body and violent mood swings. I have not yet determined whether or not the virus is contagious, but as of so far their have been no other victims. _

At the present time, there seems to be no cure for such a virus. However, after thoroughly searching the achieves here in Thunderforge. I believe I may have found an answer.

Aaron paced back and forth across the room. He had spent the week and a half at Lionfang's camp helping the knight research of the virus which had infected the King. People had already begun calling it the Chaos Infection and other similar names. They had been researching dawn to dusk everyday for the last three weeks and so far they hadn't found anything concrete.

Since the "Great Truce" had been officially declared, the Empress had allowed Lionfang and his men to enter Thunderforge in order to use the Falguard Archives for research on chaos.

He was growing tired and impatient. Most of the books they had looked through were from the archives located in Falguard and although their camp wasn't too far from the city, Lionfang refused to go anywhere near it so instead he would send for a crate of books at a time and every time he finished a shipment, he would send for another batch. Lionfang was a quick reader, but it would take an army searching and several months to look through the thousands of scrolls, books and dusty old tombs in the largest archive in Lore.

Most of the books they searched through were in languages Aaron couldn't even identify. Even the ones that were writing in English were difficult for Aaron to understand. Lionfang, however seemed to understand what was written in every tomb, manuscript and volume they came across. Through they had met less than a month ago, Aaron had already form a deep respect for the knight who had become something of a teacher to him. He sat almost the entire day flipping through dusty old books written in elvish, draconian, gnomish and even a few dozen in darkblood, all in service of his King.

"Gravelyn is probably sitting on her throne, laughing at our foolishness!" Lionfang shouted, slamming his fist down on the table. "

"What do you mean?" Aaron asked as a sudden thought struck him. "You think they might know how to cure chaos? You think they're keeping it from us?!"

Lionfang nodded, "I wouldn't be surprised, evil knows evil after all. And if we're to deal with this threat, so will we."

Aaron grunted. "So what do we do?" he asked, "We can't exactly barge in and demand they give us the cure."

"No." Lionfang said, "His Majesty wouldn't allow that." Aaron frowned. "Which is why I've decided to break from his rule."

"What?!" Aaron cried.

"Think about it." Lionfang insisted, "What's more important? Curtsy or Annihilating Evil once and for all?"

"Annihilate?" Aaron echoed.

Lionfang nodded, "It's not enough to simply defeat them. We must eliminate any and all future treats!"

"But that about chaos?" Aaron asked. Surely Lionfang couldn't be planning on taking both enemies at once.

There was another long and uncomfortable pause. "You know, Chaos is not new to Lore. It did not arrive with Drakath. The secret to defeating Chaos maybe right here in Thunderforge."

"What!?" Aaron murmured, "But how? How long has chaos existed on Lore?"

"Nothing was around before darkness." Lionfang said with disgust, "This world was built upon it. Darkness infects it like a parasite!" he hissed, then continued in a calmer tone. "I have… questioned a few darkblood and they told me rumors of a relic that may be used to defeat Drakath. There is a tomb in Blackhorn Forest with scrolls that may lead us to it. I did not believe it at first. It seemed too good to be true, but it couldn't hurt to try."

* * *

**March 11, X-2009**

**6:30 am**

Thunderforge was a large country on the northwestern border of Lore. It was home to a race known as the Darkblood. The Darkblood worshiped the darkness and had many temples for Voidstar built around Thunderforge.

The Darkblood were an exceptionally logical race. As its name implies, Thunderforge experienced constant rain. Because of this the Darkblood came up with the plan to feast on their fallen before burial, as not to create foul odors due to the damp atmosphere. They would never bury belongings. When someone died, their belongs would be divided up among the one they were close to. They considered burying belongings a waste of materials.

Instead of building cemeteries, which they considered a waste of land, they many multi- layered tombs up and down the Mountains of Madness. Ever the multiple tribes of darkblood joined into one, they began burying their dead in the catacombs underneath the city of Falguard which was located at the peak of the highest mountain. After one layer was full, they added a new layer below, so that they would never run out of room.

Finding Blackhorn tomb was simple. It was located at the foot of the mountains in a forest called the Blackhorn Woods, convenient. Lionfang led Aaron into the forest. They went alone. Luckily, the camp wasn't far from the tomb. If they ran into trouble, the knights in the camp would hear them and come running. As they reached Blackhorn Tomb, it began to rain; a light drizzle. Aaron saw through the rain that the tomb was really just a large hole that had been dug into the ground, a huge contrast from the grand pyramids of the Sandsea.

There were three wooden pillars planted around the hole, whose ends met just above the center of the hole. A thick rope was tied around the pillars and led down into the tomb. Lionfang set down the lantern in his hand and slid down the rope. When he landed at the bottom, Aaron tossed the lantern down after him. The knight caught it and lit the candle with the end of his whip. He held up the lantern and motioned for Aaron to slid down.

Aaron yawned. He had stayed up late last night and enchanted all his arrows with simple spells to add a little something extra to his shots. Fire, poison, ice, electricity and even a sleeping enchantment. As a boy in the Sandsea, Aaron's mentor, Zhoom, had taught him to enchant arrows with magic in order to increase their effectiveness. He remembered that Zhoom had once enchanted an arrow he claimed would hunt its target off the edge of Lore if necessary.

Aaron slowly slid down the rope, using his feet as a buffer to prevent himself from falling. The tomb was cold and damp. Mold grew all over the floors and up the wall. Despite the humidity of the interior of the tomb, Aaron couldn't smell anything out of the ordinary. "It doesn't stink in here." he said, surprised. He had expected the tomb to smell of decaying bodies and moldy carcasses, but all he could smell was water. Lionfang ignored his commented. Aaron met his gaze, it was one of strict disapproval. Being in the tomb clearly bothered Lionfang a great deal.

Aaron averted his eye and looked around. He couldn't spot any traps. It occurred to him that the Darkblood might use a whole new breed of traps than what Aaron encountered in the Sandsea. Or they could have simply neglected to protect their tombs at all.

The tomb was designed like a maze. There were long hallways that twisted and turned in seemingly arbitrary directions and sometimes splitting into two separate paths. he used a small piece of chalk to mark the path they took so as not to get lost in the endless maze. On the walls were hundreds of tomb doors that opened to the bodies of the Darkblood.

"This is a bit different from the pyramids of the Sandsea I'm afraid." Aaron said, "The pyramids are only designed to hold an emperor and his belongings, not a whole city. I'm not sure where the scrolls could be kept."

"Perhaps the scrolls are in one of these." Lionfang lashed his whip and broke the door off one of the drawers. The body of a Darkblood fell onto the moldy floor.

Aaron looked at the bones nervously, "Should we be doing that?"

"If those were the resting places of good people I would never allow it." he said seriously, then smiled mischievously, "but considering they are Darkblood Tombs…" he lashed out his whip and destroyed a whole row of tomb doors, spilling the bodies of fallen Darkblood onto the floor.

"It just doesn't seem right." Aaron said, uncertainly. Zhoom had taught him that disturbing the dead was bad luck and a horrible fate would befall anyone so arrogant as to attempt it. Even the bandits in the desert were afraid to wander near a deceased emperor's body although that was where much of the wealth in a pyramid was stored.

Lionfang rolled his eyes, "If you figure out a better way to find the scrolls quickly then feel free to share." Aaron didn't have any ideas. He drew his sword and was about to smash one of the tomb doors when a sticky white substance wrapped around his blade.

Aaron turned around. A spider the size of a large dog had tangled his sword in its threads. Aaron tried to pry his sword free. The spider pulled back on the thread, snatching the sword out of Aaron's hand. "H-Hey!" Aaron cried.

Several more spiders had joined the first and they surrounded Aaron and Lionfang. "Fine, you want to play that way?" Aaron grumbled, as he yanked at the straps attaching his crossbow to his chest. He whipped an arrow out from his quiver and inserted it into the crossbow.

Aaron gritted his teeth. They were completely surrounded. He pointed the arrow at one of the spiders and pulled the trigger, barely pausing for a second before reaching for the next arrow. He shot five of the spiders, one after the other. Each burst into flames as soon as the arrows made contact.

Lionfang pulled out his whip and thrash the oversize bugs. They burst into flames and several more spiders took their place. "This isn't working!" Aaron cried, "There are too many." he fired three arrows at once, killing several spiders, but not matter how many he got rid of, there were always more. Aaron took another step back. He bumped into Lionfang. The two were back to back and surround by spiders. Aaron looked at Lionfang, "Any ideas you might have would be great right about now." he said, nervously.

Lionfang raised his arms in the air then made several slow, arcing motions with his hands, "Golden Lion's Sacred Fire Lotus!" he shouted. An enormous ring of fire appeared above the spiders. At the center of the ring was Lionfang's insignia. The fire rained down on the spiders and they simultaneous burst into flames.

* * *

**March 11, X-2009**

**7:00 am**

Aaron coughed and brushed spider dust from his face. A draft had blown in through the entrance of the tomb and stirred the ashes of the burnt spiders. "That was… incredible!" Aaron cried through chokes. "Where did you learn that?"

"It is the Secret Art of house Lionfang." Lionfang smiled, "But let your guard down just yet. This place is still infested. We can't concentrated on finding the scrolls until we destroy them all."

"So what's the plan?" Aaron asked. He kicked at a pile of dust, revealing his sword which lay on the ground, covered in spider dust. He tearing cobwebs off of his blade.

"Those spiders were of a species of carrion spider which mean that they feed on the remains of a larger predator. If we slay that predator, the spiders will leave."

"Wait," Aaron said, still trying to get his mind around the plan, "If we slain this 'predator' wouldn't that just create more remains?"

"What?" Lionfang said, confused. After a moment he did a face-palm, "Not that type of remains!" he shouted, "Feces!"

"Oh!" Aaron laughed.

Lionfang gave him a dirty look, "Let's go. The predator is most likely a larger spider."

"Larger than those!?"

Lionfang nodded, "We should head towards the direction those spiders came from." he deduced.

As the two men walked deeper into the tomb, they noticed large droppings littering the floor. "Looks like we're getting closer." Aaron said and held his nose, "Gross."

As they continued down the hallway, Aaron heard a loud twittering noise. The noise gradually grew louder until it filled Aaron's ears. Aaron turned his head from side to side, trying to figure out where the noise had come from. All his senses were alert. His heart was pounding. Suddenly the noise stopped. Before he could react, something sped across the edge of his vision and Lionfang was roughly slammed against the wall by a spider 5 times his size. Aaron heard a crack and the knight fell the ground like a rag-doll.

"Lionfang!" Aaron cried. He lifted his crossbow and pointed it to the spider's head. He fired a tranquilizing arrow at the beast, but it only managed to make it even more furious.

Aaron unsheathed his blade and leaped onto the spider's back. He stabbed it in its abdomen which cause it to spew out a long line of thread. The thread twisted around and wrapped around Aaron's wrist. The spider used it's thread to toss Aaron off it's back.

Aaron skidded across the floor. He recovered quickly and leapt to his feet firing several more arrows at the spider. One of the arrows encased the spider's leg in a large block of ice. Another blocked it's abdomen and prevented more string from coming out.

Trapped and unable to defend itself, the spider gave a finally furious cry and snapped it's pincers. Aaron saw Lionfang, who was still pinned up against the wall struggle to pull one of his hands free of the spider's grip. The golden knight managed to free one of his arms which he lifted above his head. "Blinding Light!" he cried, just as a column of light engulfed he spider.

When the light faded, Aaron saw the spider lying dead on the floor of the tomb. He walked up to the spider and reclaimed his sword. A gooey green substance covered the blade. Aaron cringed then turned to Lionfang.

The knight struggled to stand. Aaron rushed over to him, "Are you alright?"

"Fine." Lionfang pointed to a door, "The scrolls, they're probably in there."

"Alright," Aaron nodded, "You stay here and rest. Yell if any more spiders show up." Aaron darted to the other end of the hall and swung the door open.

The room was filled with spider webs. There were several piles of webs molded into the shape of jars. He sliced the jars open. Unlike the threads the spiders had used to trap his sword, the threads were soft and he cut through him easily.

Aaron piled inside the jar. Inside were several scrolls, perfectly preserved inside the cobwebs.

* * *

**March 11, X-2009**

**7:20 am**

"This is it!" Lionfang cried. The two of them had left the tomb and were standing in the forest. The rain was pouring and they had taking shelter under the trees.

Aaron looked that the scroll, "What's that weird language?"

"It's the language of ancient Darkblood." Lionfang explained, "It will take at least a month to translate, but I positive this is it!" he looked at Aaron excitedly, "Do you know what this mean?"

"We can cure Alteon and everyone infected by chaos?" Aaron tried.

"Yes, but it is much better than that my friend." Lionfang smiled, "It means the truce is over!" he cried.

Aaron smiled. That would mean that he wouldn't have to partner up with Milleanna. He didn't leave the corruption of the Sandsea just to team up with scum. His blood boiled, but he had made a vow when he had left the Sandsea, not to engage in needless bloodshed. That meant taking down Drakath and the Shadowscythe, not joining in their savagery. And if it meant starting a war on two fronts, then so be it.


	11. Chapter 11

**March 15, X-2009**

**3:30 pm**

Spencer plowed through the shelves of the Battleon archieves. He had already looked though every scroll, pamphet and tomb he could find in the castle and the closest thing he could find to prove that a thing called chaos even existed. He didn't believe anyone was capable of creating a whole new branch of magic, which meant that Drakath must have a benefactor, someine who provided him with his power, but if that was so then what exactly did they intend to do?

Spencer snatched a volume titled, "Depths of the Human Soul: Theory of Order and Chaos in Creation by Lord Arthur Erville." The dracomancer was hurried to limb down the ladder. His foot slipped on one of the runges and he fell. Runil caught him just in time and gently lowered him to the ground.

"So? What did you find?" she asked.

"I'm not sure, but I think this might be the answer." Spencer said, "Otherwise I'd be at a dead end."

He flipped through the pages of the dusty old tomb. Although it was so old, the binding was woven together perfectly, as if the book had never been opened before. He needed to find something about those '13 lords of chaos' the king had mentioned.

"Maybe he's trying to create an empire?" Runil suggested, "And the 13 lord of chaos are like his men."

"That would make sense, but listen to this." Spencer said. "Many people theorize that Lore was initially founded upon light and darkness, but I believe that there is something that came before. The most basic instinct of all living things, whether they be human, beast or elemental. This is the instinct of survival, the instinct of chaos. Each being when striped down to only its most basic instincts, will attempt to survive by an means necessary. Such beings are unlike anything that we have known in our lifetimes, emotionless, merciless. Such instincts can only lead to one ultimately result…. total annihilation, not just of mankind, but of all beings. There is really only one method, I believe, to counter these negative feelings. That is the new discovery I have made. When bonds are created between beings, a mutual trust is created between them and they learn to depend on each other for an easier survival. Unfortunately, mankind have proven to easily succumb to all kinds of negative feelings and I believe that it is only a matter of time before our instincts are forced to resurface."

* * *

**March 20, X-2009**

**10:00 am**

The King had given them their first assignment, track down some kid that had gone missing in the forest. Normally it wouldn't be a big deal. The forests of Swordhaven was a rather safe place to be, but as soon as signs of the chaos infection starting showing up in animals, the King had forbade all citizens from leaving town without an escort. Merchants traveling to other towns with accompanied by twice the number of guards, each armed to the tooth.

Already one of the knights had been bitten by a wolf. The animal had been beyond rabid and even after having been stabbed through its side, it kept attacking until all the blood in its body had poured out, leaving it a withered husk of an being.

The knight it had bitten had been immediately sent to the infirmary. He had began experience vivid hallucinations and screamed all throughout the night. The healers had tied him down and tried every remedy they knew, but nothing had worked.

Alteon had announced that he had chosen to send them instead of his knights because they were busy finding out how the boy had evade the watch guards that had been stationed at all the exits to the city. This of course was a valid reason, but Aaron guessed the King had really chosen them to do this task in order to assure the citizens of Swordhaven and the rest of the Kingdom that the truce was, in fact beneficial and would not end up going horribly wrong.

Aaron watched, unimpressed as Milleanna loaded her mana gun. She held 6 pea sized mana bullets in her hand and carefully slipped them into the cylinder. Aaron wondered why Milleanna bothered to use a gun.

Mana guns were weak and efficient weapons. They worked similarly to a bow and arrow, except that they were practically useless at further than five feet. Mana bullets would burnt out as they headed through their target. The faster the bullets traveled the quicker they burned out. The most effective guns only work at a distance of around 10 feet before the bullets burned out and would bounce of bare skin as harmlessly as a glass marble, whereas a good archer could fire a arrow and kill a man from several hundred feet away.

Milleanna looked up at the sky and shield her eyes from the sun. Even with her shades, the girl complained that the sun was terribly bright. "Damn demon." he muttered.

Suddenly Milleanna stopped. "Its pointless to walk around aimlessly. We have to think of a strategy."

"That's all good, but what do you suggest we do?" Aaron snorted, "We don't even know where he exited the town from. We should probably go back and wait till they've figured that out first."

"No, by that time it'll be too late."

"I still don't understand how that kid got out of town without someone finding out. Honestly, I'm starting to doubt he ever left town."

"There are many ways he could have escaped." Milleanna said.

"For example?"

"He could have climb a tree and if that tree happened to have a branch that extended beyond the wall, he could have easily gotten out. He could have gotten out by wandering the sewers till he found a pothole that opened outside of town. He could have dug a hole under the wall. Really there are endless ways he could have escaped."

"Find, but that still doesn't help us find him." Aaron reminded her.

Milleanna place her hand on her throat and let out a series of deep rumbling sounds. Then she stopped to listen. "This way" she said pointing to an overgrowth and unused path.

"But how do you know that."

"Just shut up and follow me!"

They walked through the bushes until they came across a clearing in the middle of the forest. A pigeon sat at the center of the clearing and stared at Milleanna as she emerged.

"Shoo." Milleanna mumbled, waving her hand though the air. The pigeon flew away and suddenly Aaron heard a rustling in the trees overhead. He drew his sword and prepared to attack whatever popped out at them.

"What was that for!" a voice cried. A kid leapt down from the trees and landed at the center of the clear. "You scared it away! And I was this close to catching it!" He lifted his fingers to show them how close.

Aaron sheathed his sword and walked up to the boy, "I'm sorry for scaring your bird away, but your parents are both worried about you. You shouldn't wander though the forest by yourself. Its dangerous."

"Yea I know." the boy said, sadly. "I just wanted to catch a bird for my sis. Cuz see its her birthday ta-day! And she's always sayin' how much she wants one, but the ones in the store or cost a lot money. She really loves pigeons so I thought I'd get one for her." Then he brightened, "My name's Peter, nice to meetcha!"

Out of the corner of his eye, Aaron saw a pair of purple eyes glowing from inside a bush. He wiped out his sword, making a deep cut in the wolf's chest and sending its blood pouring out, but the wolf kept coming.

* * *

**March 20, X-2009**

**12:00 pm**

Milleanna grabbed Aaron's dagger. "What the hell are you doing?!" he cried, "He's just a kid!"

"No, he only looks like a child. That _thing _is an animal." Milleanna said, pointing to the half crazed being snaring at them from inside the cage.

"You can't!" Aaron cried, drawing his sword, "I won't let you!"

"You're right." Milleanna said, "Cause you're going to do it."

"No!" Aaron shouted, grabbing Milleanna by the wrist.

Milleanna stood to one side and pointed at the creature in the cage. "Take a good look at him! Do you really want his family to see him like that!?"

Aaron looked at the boy, but he had disappeared. It had been devoured by the monster that had sprung out from within him. A monster with nothing but hatred in its eyes. No, even hatred had been taking from him. What stood before him was nothing more then the hollow and emotionless shell of a being that had nothing, but its most basic instinct… to kill.

"Its a difficult decision, but its one we'll have to make from now on! This is our reality! This is the world we live in and if we want to protect it, this is what we will have to do! You hesitant for even a moment and you're dead!" she raised the dagger and placed it in Aaron's hands. "So don't give me that, 'Thou shall not kill' crap!"

Aaron took the knife and walked over to the cage. Suddenly an image flashed across his mind, _"I just wanted to catch a bird for my sis. Cuz see its her birthday ta-day!"_

He hesitated and the creature snatched the knife from his hands and quickly inserted it into Aaron's arm. Aaron cried out in pain and pulled his arm away. He collapsed on to the forest floor. The creature dove towards him, aiming for his throat.

Aaron heard two shots fire, one after the other. A hole appeared on the creature's forehead and chest and it fell to the ground, dead at Aaron's feet.

Milleanna blew on her smoking gun and shoved it back into the holster. "Let's go." she said coldly.


	12. Chapter 12

**March 21, X-2009**

**10:00 am**

_The parents of the kid who died in the forest yesterday are holding a funeral for him today. The weather is sunny, but no one really seems to care. Its as if the weather is mocking the tragedy with arrogant cheerfulness. Aaron told me what happened, how they had been forced to kill the boy after he had been bitten by a corrupted wolf._

_To the boy's family however, as well as the rest of the town, they explained how the boy been drowned after falling in the river. He and Milleanna had done their best to remove any traces of corruption before coming back to town and they dunked his body in the river to make it more believable. Everyone seems to have bought their story, for the time being at least, it is dangerous to allow people to know just how frightening this enemy is. Fear is the last thing we need at this point, especially with the King in his current state. None of the healers have been able to cure his condition as of yet and I fear it is only getting worse._

Spencer stuck his feather pen back into the ink pot and got up. The funeral would be starting soon and although her rarely had the patience for long meeting and religious affairs, it would be unappropriated for him not to attend.

"You want to to come with you?" Runil asked.

"That's sweet of you, but I doubt you could sit still for so long."

"You're right about that." she said, flapping her wings. "If we dragon spent so much time holding funerals the dead would turn in their graves."

* * *

There was a crowd of people assembled outside the temple for the funeral. Spencer guessed that nearly everyone from the town was there. He had swamped his used pink track suit for a stylish tux and had used even more gel then usual to press down the strands of hair he usually let stick up.

"Speedy!" Aaron waved, as he walked over to him. The ranger had taken to calling Spencer by that name as of late. He was dressed in a black suit jacket and a pale blue dress shirt and had a little pink flower pinned to his clothing.

"Hey." Spencer greeted, casually. "How's his Majesty holding up?" As Aaron drew nearer Spencer smelled wine in his breath. "Are you drunk?!" he cried.

"Course not!" Aaron insisted, although it was obvious he was lying. "The King's not doin' too well I'm 'fraid." Aaron said, "On the bright side he doesn't seem to be getting any worse. He's calmed down a bit but it kind of goes back and forth you know?"

"If my sister were here she'll be able to fix him I'm sure."

"Hey! You never told me you had a sister!." Aaron chuckled, "She pretty?"

"Woah, there." Spencer said, "Don't you even think about it. Besides I don't know where she is. I haven't seen her in years. She when on a pilgrimage a few years ago and I haven't seen her since, but I sure she's fine, she still sends letters from time to time."

"Yea?" Aaron smiled, "Well what's her name?"

"Isia Drake." a voice said.

Spencer whirled around. As he stared at Milleanna he felt something about her was different. She had taken off her trench coat and put on a straw hat for shade, but there was something else too, something that couldn't be seen by the eye. A sensation which seemed vaguely familiar to Spencer, but which he couldn't quite identify.

"Runil." he corrected her.

"Hey, you named your dragon after your sister!" Aaron exclaimed, "She must be really pretty."

"Hey, quit it!" Spencer brushed Aaron off his shoulder, "Besides you already have a girlfriend."

"Huh?" Aaron said.

"And speak of the devil here she comes." Spencer cried.

"Big Brother!" Princess Tera cried.

"Oh camel dung." Aaron swore as Tera dragged by into the crowd of people by his ear.

"Isia died years ago." Spencer warned as soon as Aaron was out of earshot, "We don't talk about her anymore."

"All the more reason for me to want to find out everything there is to know.

* * *

**March 21, X-2009**

**12:00 pm**

The temple bells rung. Milleanna counted each time they sounded. 12. People slowly began shuffling inside. Most of the people didn't cry, they simply hung their heads and kept quiet.

Milleanna noticed a small group of people crying softly at the center of the crowd. There was a young woman a man and a young girl. That's probably his sister, Milleanna thought. Poor bastard had died just to get her a bird, what a joke. Milleanna did her best to smile warmly when they walked past her.

The little girl looked up at her, but her mother quickly pulled her away. "Move along Kat. There's no telling what that demon will do if you get too close." Milleanna growled a bit, as if by instinct and bit her tongue.

She didn't bother entering the temple when the funeral started. The temple was designed for the worshipers of Celeritas, the Avatar of Light and she would probably be incinerated for taking a step inside. Instead, she stood just outside the doorway and listened to what was said.

She didn't understand most of it, and she doubted most of the people inside did either. The priest spoke in the language of the plane of Light which, only a handful of people understood, outside those who had been born in the elemental plane.

She managed to pick up a few words and most of what was said in common._"_Peter_… cherished child… Celeritas… eternity." _The priest ended his speech with, "We thank the Avatars for the time he spent with us and the memories we hold of him in our hearts."

"Memories in our hearts huh?" Milleanna chuckled.

_"Strange finding you here little sister."_

_"I could say the same to you, Lykos." _Milleanna said. Before her stood a large gray wolf with bright red eyes. "Did you find anything?"

_"Yes. His name is _Escherion Cornelis_. His family was from a sister town of _Mobius_ by the same name. The city lies just at the outskirts of town and has been in ruins for over two decades."_

_"And your evidence?"_

_"There has recently been an increase in activity around the area of the ruins. I've found fresh traces of magic within the ruins of the city."_

_"Chaos?"_

_"Yes."_

_"Alright. You should probably leave before they see you." _Milleanna said. She stroked the wolf's fur which had already begun to burn. The wolf burst into a cloud of smoke and vanished into the air.

"Two decades huh?" she mumbled to herself. "Things just got a whole lot more complicated."

* * *

**March 21, X-2009**

**10:00 pm**

Kat slowly crawled into bed. She should have never asked Peter to go to the forest. If she hadn't he would still be here. He would have still been here to celebrate her birthday with her, but now no one would be celebrating for a long time, she knew. She lay in bed, sniffing quietly and stared at the soft patch of moonlight that seeped in through her bedroom window.

Suddenly the moonlight vanished. Kat looked up in horror as creature with glowing red eyes stared back at her from outside her bedroom window. The creature gently tapped at the glass.

Kat shut her eyes and dove under her blankets, hoping what ever outside her window would give up and go away.

After a while, she found the courage poke her face out from underneath the covers and look towards her bedroom window. Whatever had been there before was gone.

She sighed and was about to close her eyes and go back to sleep when a figure emerged from at shadows at the foot of her bed. She let out a little scream which was almost immediately silenced by the creature putting its hand over her mouth. The creature knelled down at the side of her bed and extended its hand out to her. On it was a crow.

Kat pulled her hand out from under the covers and gently stroked the bird's silky, jet black feathers.

"Your big brother got this just for you. He really loved you a lot." Kat tried to smiled, but ended up bursting into tears while the crow picked at her hair. "Happy Birthday kid."


	13. Chapter 13

**Feb 10, X-2009**

**6:00 pm**

"Escherion Cornelius. A most interesting man. He had his entire family where driven out of the Cornelius Estate twenty years ago and fled to Arcangrove where he studied to become a mage. A proficient man, top of his class at everything. Became a professor at the Tower after graduating." Drakath said, drearily. He gazed into his scrying orb at a young mage mixing chemicals in a potions lab. "Twenty years ago. 1989, the year that marked the reawakening of chaos." he grinned, "Indeed it is as if the very surface of Lore was altered during that time. Little did they know." he chuckled, "That it was only the beginning of something much, much greater."

Drakath lifted his hand. A cloud of purple fog engulfed the orb and was quickly sucked inside of it. "It has begun."

* * *

**April 1, X-2009**

**10:00 am**

Spencer darted up the stairs as fast as his speed magic would allow and burst through the door of the war room only to be drenched by a bucket full of ice cold water. He heard laughter ring throughout the room gritted his teeth as he shoved the bucket off his head.

"Hey Speedy!" he heard Aaron say. "April Fools buddy!"

"If you guys are done I have a message from the King." Spencer growled, wiping the water out of his eyes.

All at once the laughter stopped. "What is it?" Aaron asked.

"There's something up in Mobius." Runil said. The dragon had managed to evade the water bomb and now landed on Spencer's head, trying her best to dry his hair. "There was a suddenly outbreak of chaos there 2 days ago.

"It seems like we've been having a lot of those lately." one of the knights said solemnly.

"His Majesty says that this time it is worse then anything we have seen before."

The knights stared at Spencer with grave expressions painted on their faces. One of them stood up and said, "Then I will lead a band of knights to Mobius and we will isolate this lately outbreak before it spreads any further."

Spencer shook his head. "His Majesty feels that this is not a task for Swordhaven's knights, but the Alliance. He wants Aaron and Milleanna to lead the operation."

"What?!"

* * *

**April 1, X-2009**

**11:00 am**

"Come on." Spencer said as he watched Aaron pace up and down the long hallway. "Its not like you didn't know this was coming. The King announced this more then a month ago. You two of official partners and you'll to leading the Truce's forces against chaos."

"The big deal?!" Aaron shouted. "The big deal is I don't want to spend the next Avatars know how many years working with that-" Aaron was so mad he couldn't even find the words to finish his sentence so instead he growled and continued stomping back and forth.

"It can be that bad. I mean its not like this is your first time working with her."

"Yeah the first time she shot a 6 year old between the eyes!"

"Oy vey." Spencer sighed. "So when did you tell her to be here?"

"I don't know." Aaron said, finally stopping. "I sent one of the knights to get her a while ago."

"I'm right here." Aaron jumped and whirled around. Milleanna was sitting directly behind him on the railing of the main staircase. She was smoking a pipe and stared at the two of them with an expression that looked like death. "If this is someone's idea of a joke its not funny." she said, rubbing the sleep out of her eyes.

"Its almost noon and you're still tired?" Spencer said.

"I'm nocturnal alright?!" she huffed. "Lets just get this over with alright where are we going?"

"You and Aaron are going to Mobius you can take as many men as you need from Alteon's army or Gravelyn's as you wish. His Majesty has requested that you both leave has soon as possible." Spencer said.

"Then we'll leave immediately." Milleanna said. She slid down the railing and landed on the first floor.

"Don't you want to take some men with you?" Spencer asked.

"For once I think she's right. It'll be better if we go alone so we don't attract as much attention." Aaron said.

"That's the spirit now come on Sand-boy." Milleanna stretched.


	14. Chapter 14

**Feb 10, X-2009**

**6:00 pm**

"Escherion Cornelius. A most interesting man. He had his entire family where driven out of the Cornelius Estate twenty years ago and fled to Arcangrove where he studied to become a mage. A proficient man, top of his class at everything. Became a professor at the Tower after graduating." Drakath said, drearily. He gazed into his scrying orb at a young mage mixing chemicals in a potions lab. "Twenty years ago. The year that marked the reawakening of chaos." he grinned, "Indeed it is as if the very surface of Lore was altered during that time. Little did they know." he chuckled, "That it was only the beginning of something much, much greater."

Drakath lifted his hand. A cloud of purple fog engulfed the orb and was quickly sucked inside of it. "It has begun."

* * *

**April 1, X-2009**

**10:00 am**

Spencer darted up the stairs as fast as his speed magic would allow and burst through the door of the war room only to be drenched by a bucket full of ice cold water. He heard laughter ring throughout the room gritted his teeth as he shoved the bucket off his head.

"Hey Speedy!" he heard Aaron say. "April Fools buddy!"

"If you guys are done I have a message from the King." Spencer growled, wiping the water out of his eyes.

All at once the laughter stopped. "What is it?" Aaron asked.

"There's something up in Mobius." Runil said. The dragon had managed to evade the water bomb and now landed on Spencer's head, trying her best to dry his hair. "There was a suddenly outbreak of chaos there 2 days ago.

"It seems like we've been having a lot of those lately." one of the knights said solemnly.

"His Majesty says that this time it is worse then anything we have seen before."

The knights stared at Spencer with grave expressions painted on their faces. One of them stood up and said, "Then I will lead a band of knights to Mobius and we will isolate this lately outbreak before it spreads any further."

Spencer shook his head. "His Majesty feels that this is not a task for Swordhaven's knights, but the Alliance. He wants Aaron and Milleanna to lead the operation."

"What?!"

* * *

**April 1, X-2009**

**11:00 am**

"Come on." Spencer said as he watched Aaron pace up and down the long hallway. "Its not like you didn't know this was coming. The King announced this more then a month ago. You two of official partners and you'll to leading the Truce's forces against chaos."

"The big deal?!" Aaron shouted. "The big deal is I don't want to spend the next Avatars know how many years working with that-" Aaron was so mad he couldn't even find the words to finish his sentence so instead he growled and continued stomping back and forth.

"It can be that bad. I mean its not like this is your first time working with her."

"Yeah the first time she shot a 6 year old between the eyes!"

"Oy vey." Spencer sighed. "So when did you tell her to be here?"

"I don't know." Aaron said, finally stopping. "I sent one of the knights to get her a while ago."

"I'm right here." Aaron jumped and whirled around. Milleanna was sitting directly behind him on the railing of the main staircase. She was smoking a pipe and stared at the two of them with an expression that looked like death. "If this is someone's idea of a joke its not funny." she said, rubbing the sleep out of her eyes.

"Its almost noon and you're still tired?" Spencer said.

"I'm nocturnal alright?!" she huffed. "Lets just get this over with alright where are we going?"

"You and Aaron are going to Mobius you can take as many men as you need from Alteon's army or Gravelyn's as you wish. His Majesty has requested that you both leave has soon as possible." Spencer said.

"Then we'll leave immediately." Milleanna said. She slid down the railing and landed on the first floor.

"Don't you want to take some men with you?" Spencer asked.

"For once I think she's right. It'll be better if we go alone so we don't attract as much attention." Aaron said.

"That's the spirit now come on Sand-boy."

* * *

**April 4, X-2009**

**8:00 am**

Mobius was a small, quiet town in the middle of a forest. The town was a fishing village with a few hundred inhabitants. Now, standing on the outskirts of town, Aaron could see the chaos that had already been inflicted on it. Homes and trees were warped and twisted as if they were made of clay. Many buildings had even been flipped inside out.

"Looks like they really did a number on the place." Milleanna said, "How 'bout that."

"According to reports chaos started appearing here around a week ago. Most of the survivors have already fled to neighboring towns. His Majesty has posted knights in each of the towns we have jurisdiction in, in order to screen new arrivals for signs of infection." Aaron said, "What we need to do now is search for anyone left stranded and then get rid of any chaos beasts that are still here."

"If it were that easy, Alteon wouldn't have called us here." Milleanna grumbled as she leapt off the back of her horse.

"What are you talking about?"

"Think about it Sand-boy." she said, "Until now all of the chaos missions Alteon has assigned has been to his knights. Why would he assign this one to us? Its the same as when we went after that kid. This is bigger then either of our countries. Alteon understands that. He understands chaos. It is inside him." Aaron clenched his fists. "It controls him, but at the same time her can predict it, hear its whispers and can tell them to us. That is our advantage."

"How do you know that?" Aaron said as he joined her.

Milleanna ignored the question. "Come on." she said, "We need to start with the ruins."

"What ruins?" Aaron asked. What on Lore was she talking about?

Milleanna rolled her eyes, "I don't have time for your stupidity right now."

"Excuse me!" Aaron said, grabbing Milleanna by the shoulder, "I think you're forgetting exactly who beat up, almost kill and locked up who. We are not taking another step until you tell me exactly what plan you've concocted in that head of yours."

"That's an interesting notion." Milleanna smirked, "We'll talk about this again later." She pointing at the skyline towards the rising sun. She squinted her eyes, despite the fact she was already wearing sunglasses and said, "The ruins of an old estate lie to the east of here. The estate belonged to the former lord of Mobius."

"So?" Aaron asked as the two headed east.

"Think about it!" Milleanna cried in frustration, "I'm saying that we're facing more than just an outbreak. We're dealing with a chaos lord! That's why we're here!"

"So how do you know all this?" he asked. He paused a moment before answering his own question, "Spies?"

"The best in the world." Milleanna bragged.

"So what do we know about this guy?"

"His name is Escherion Cornelis. He lived here over twenty years ago when the former King was still in power."

"Slugwrath you mean?" Aaron said. "Drakath's father."

"So your dragon friend told you? Yes, Drakath's father. His family were lords under the Slugwrath's for centuries and by the looks of it, still are." The two stared out at the ruins. The buildings were all falling apart, but even more surprising Aaron found that several areas of the main structure were impossibly warped out of shape in ways that no ordinary magic could pull of. Upside down, sideways, loops. Aaron felt dizzy just looking.

They walked on till they came to a giant crater in the center of what appeared to have been the courtyard. "The magical energy seems to originate at the center of this crater. You know what that means?"

"Escherion was here." Aaron growled. He could feel the magic energies the crater emitted. They were fainted, but definitely there. "But it wasn't recently. I would guess a week ago."

"Well at least your not totally stupid. Yes, this is where he made a pact with Drakath. Where he became Drakath's first lord of chaos. And then when he came to, he did this." she gestured to their surroundings. "This is all just theory of course."

"I still don't understand how you came to that conclusion." Aaron said, "Even a great spy couldn't found that out."

"Let's just say I understand how this type of magic works."

"Fine, but why would Escherion do it?" Aaron asked, "Why come back and why make a deal with Drakath?"

"Its probably because of Alteon." she said causally.

"What does the King have to do with this?" Aaron said defensively.

"Don't be so naive." Milleanna snorted, "After Alteon rose to power, he exiled all of Slugwrath's former lords and replaced them with his own. Standard procedure."

"So do you think these 13 lords are all former lords of Slugwrath?"

"No, there were only about half a dozen of those guys. For now, its too soon to know who the others may be."


End file.
